Exchange-traded funds with metaverses have become popular

Research firm Morningstar analyzed the question “In which direction are investors most interested now?”. The answer turned out to be simple. The owners of cryptocurrency assets are interested in exchanges that are focused on the development of the metaverses.

They are well ahead of their competitors from other exchange-traded funds that focus on blockchain and the internet. Although it was previously said that the cryptocurrency industry will move into decentralization mode and concentrate more on this, however, in the short to medium term, users are still more interested in the metaverses, rather than the DeFi sector.

Since June 2021, there have been 35 listed exchange-traded funds with an increased focus on the metaverse, according to research firm Morningstar. It is noteworthy that 29 funds traded on the stock exchange with a focus on the Internet were created. Those ETFs that focus on blockchain and decentralization were noticed by only 23 firms.

Morningstar reports that between October 2021 and February 2022, more than $2,600,000,000 was invested in metaverse exchange-traded funds. However, funding for such ETFs has almost ceased. This is especially noticeable given the fact that a large outflow of funds was seen from cryptocurrency exchanges and funds related to cryptocurrencies in 2022.

The technology of virtual worlds is developing with great difficulty and many people do not agree with such figures as Mark Zuckerberg, referring to such a development of the future with a grain of salt. Despite this, financial influencers on Wall Street believe that the future of the market lies with the market for virtual worlds.

Analysts at Citi Bank recently gave their forecast for the growth of the metaverse. According to them, virtual worlds will be inhabited by a large user base, which by 2030 will exceed 5,000,000,000 people, and the income of such technologies is estimated at $8,000,000,000,000-$13,000,000,000,000.

Recently, the consulting firm Metaversed conducted an analysis, according to which the volume of virtual worlds was 148 pieces at the time of the fourth quarter of 2022. Given that the metaverse is one of the still underdeveloped Web3 technologies, most people still prefer to stay in the Web2 sector.

The main leader in the field of virtual worlds, perhaps, can be called the game Roblox. More than 202,000,000 people spend their time there every month. Among other successful examples, it is worth noting the Minecraft game, the rights to which are now owned by Microsoft. More than 174,000,000 people play there every month. The top 3 is closed by Fortnite with over 81,000,000 users. All of the above projects are related to Web2 technologies and so far there are more people there than in the Web3 worlds. However, there are many more projects created on Web3 than in the case of Web2 games.

Among the most famous and successful cryptogaming projects is Axie Infinity, where more than 700,000 players are recruited every month. Top 2 also includes Upland with a user base exceeding 600,000 people, and NFTWorlds closes the top three. More than 500,000 people visit the latter every month.