SAND, the native token of the Sandbox — a blockchain-based gaming platform owned by Animoca Brands, inched higher on Tuesday, building on its gains made all across November, to reach another record high. SAND token price rose to $5.64 after swelling 16.25% intraday but retraced some of those gains to trade at $5.54 at the press time. The move took the Sandbox token's month-to-date (MTD) and year-to-date (YTD) gains to nearly 260% and over 14,700%, respectively, with its market capitalization crossing above $5 billion, making it the 41st-largest coin in the sector. Many catalysts behind the SAND price rally This …

Niantic, the popular augmented reality (AR) mobile game Pokemon Go developer, is planning to build a “real-world” metaverse with newly raised funding. The company officially announced Monday the completion of a $300 million raise from the technology-focused investment manager Coatue, bringing the company’s valuation to $9 billion. Coatue is known as a major investor in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, backing companies like blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis, cryptocurrency startup Fireblocks, blockchain security firm CertiK and others. The firm has also recently participated in a $555 million funding round for cryptocurrency fintech startup MoonPay. “Niantic is building a platform for AR …

Looking at the past 7-days of winners and losers might give one the impression that cryptocurrency markets are net positive. Still, total market capitalization actually fell by 6.7% to $2.72 trillion as Bitcoin's (BTC) price retraced 8.3% to $58,425. The only connection between this week's top gainers seems to be the Metaverse and gaming sector, which has been on a bull run since Facebook rebranded to Meta on Oct. 28, signaling its new focus on that segment. Further bullish news backing the current surge in Metaverse-related tokens is Gemini exchange raising $400 million on Nov. 19 to build a decentralized …

Gala Games' in-house currency GALA rallied by nearly 350% in November, ignoring corrections across the top cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC). Notably, GALA price surged from $0.088 to $0.42 between Nov. 1 and Nov. 22. GALA's gains primarily came in the wake of a price rally across a majority of gaming and metaverse crypto assets. For instance, MANA, the native token of Decentraland — a blockchain-based virtual world that allows users to create, experience, and monetize content and applications, climbed by more than 30% month-to-date. Similarly, SAND, the native asset of decentralized metaverse project, the Sandbox, more than doubled in prices …

Look at your feet. A lot of you (raises hand) are wearing Nikes right now. For the fiscal year ending May 31, 2021, Nike reported its revenue was up 19% to $44.5 billion for the year. But that’s here. What about in the Metaverse? Why Nike is interested in the Metaverse For those as of yet unfamiliar with the concept, the easiest — yet very incomplete — way of imagining the Metaverse is imagining yourself existing in a real-life video game. Nike enters and provides very cool meta-stuff. This is no joke. Nike is very serious about the Metaverse. Patent …

Bloktopia is a virtual skyscraper in the Metaverse comprised of 21 levels to pay homage to the 21 million total maximum supply of Bitcoin (BTC). Owners of its BLOK tokens will be known as Bloktopians. Users will be able to buy and sell nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, purchase digital ad venues, own real estate, and more in the Bloktopia virtual reality. Meanwhile, Bloktopians can also earn revenue by selling or leasing virtual property in the skyrscraper to interested buyers. Bloktopia in-game footage | Source: Bloktopia The project, set to launch sometime next year, is built on the Polygon network, a …

The Winklevoss twins’ crypto exchange Gemini will allocate capital from its $400 million funding round into building a “Gemini experience in different Metaverses.” Gemini announced that it had closed a $400 million equity growth funding round at a valuation of $7.1 billion on Nov. 18, marking the first time the firm had sought outside financing. Morgan Creek Digital led the round with participation from 10T, ParaFi, Newflow Partners, and Marcy Venture Partners to name a few. Notably, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) — which also partnered with Gemini to launch the first crypto trading services offered by a big …

There have been many new applications of blockchain technology in recent years. However, many believe the best real-world use cases for this technology are yet to come. Some believe this will take shape in the metaverse, the next believable iteration of the internet. With the metaverse, any participant can enter a virtual world that will connect different environments. This differs greatly from most people’s assumption that the metaverse is restricted to virtual reality (VR), a fact that is not by any means true. In addition to VR, the metaverse is set to include interactive and realistic assets, the ability to …

Time Magazine, the media company that has been an American institution for almost a century, is partnering with Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital in an effort for its readers to explore the metaverse. In a Thursday announcement, Time said the partnership with the investment management firm was aimed at educating its readers about the metaverse. The long-running magazine will be releasing a weekly newsletter on the metaverse, hosting educational resources on its website, and including the virtual space as a category in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Novogratz said the partnership was part of …

The South Korean people and an increasing number of major companies in the country have begun to embrace and integrate the Metaverse into their everyday lives in new and unexpected ways. Two major retailers in the country have recently introduced Metaverse and AI elements to shoppers to enhance their shopping experience. GS Shop introduced home shopping via the Metaverse on Nov. 16 by showing the inner workings of a food production facility. It aimed to reassure customers of the quality of the facility and the food that was for sale. GS Shop turned scans of the physical facility into 3D …

Meta — the company formerly known as Facebook — is diving straight into virtual reality with a preview of its latest research and development on haptic gloves which give sensory feedback while in digital realms. Facebook rebranded to Meta in late October to shift its focus from social media to Metaverse and VR tech development. In a Nov. 16 blog post, Meta shared the latest breakthroughs in haptic glove research from its VR tech firm Reality Labs, noting that the product has been seven years in the making. The firm shared a video that shows two people testing the haptic …

Metaverse gaming tokens Ethverse (ETHV), The Sandbox (SAND), GameSwap (GSWAP), Yield Guild Games (YGG), Axie Infinity (AXS) are the few cryptocurrencies seeing gains on Nov. 17 with Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and most of the market in the red. Best-performing crypto sector The emerging division of the blockchain universe saw its market cap swell by more than 9% in the previous 24 hours and almost 8% in the last seven days to reach $17.42 billion. Its gains came on the back of volatile upside moves in Ethverse, The Sandbox, GameSwap, Yield Guild Games, Axie Infinity, and other markets. Meanwhile, about …