While the 2022 bear market grazed off the excitement around the budding crypto sub-ecosystems such as nonfungible tokens (NFTs), the Metaverse remains well-positioned for long-term disruption. Considering the myriad consumer and business-centric use cases the metaverse could cater to, a McKinsey & Company report highlights the technology’s potential to generate up to $5 trillion in value by 2030. For the Metaverse to reach its full potential, the report highlighted the need for four technology enablers — devices (AR/VR, sensors, haptics, and peripherals), interoperability and open standards, facilitating platforms and development tools. However, the success of Metaverse is weighed by a …

The Metaverse and Virtual Reality (VR) go hand in hand in the public’s imagination and platforms including Somnium Space, Crypto Voxels, and Meta’s Horizon Worlds already support the technology. But despite describing itself as a “decentralized virtual reality platform” on its website, the browser-based 3D metaverse platform Decentraland still lacks VR. Sean Ong, founder of extended reality specialists XR Dev Studio, sits on a team that has developed an “alpha” version of the VR platform. He explained that while “VR has always been part of Decentraland’s vision,” the Decentraland Foundation has been prioritizing the implementation of core features ahead of …

Derivatives marketplace CME Group is planning to launch reference rates and real-time indices for three metaverse crypto assets, allowing investors to track pricing data more reliably using a methodology commonly used in traditional finance. Beginning Jan. 30, CME Group and CF Benchmarks will launch reference rates for Axie Infinity (AXS), Chiliz (CHZ) and Decentraland (MANA), the company announced on Jan. 5. The reference rates and indices are not tradeable products but instead can be used by investors to “price sector-specific portfolios, develop structured products … And manage price risk around various Metaverse-based projects,” said Giovanni Vicioso, CME Group’s head of …

Despite the crypto winter, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) continue to draw interest. This has become apparent as many brands and retailers have started to offer digital NFTs attached to physical products. Known as “phygitals,” these offerings allow real-world products to be tied to digital NFTs. For example, RTFKT — a digital fashion and collectible company — recently launched a project called Cryptokicks iRL. According to sources, RTFKT is creating digitally-designed sneakers backed by a physical product. RTFKT’s official Twitter account recently tweeted that Lace Engine NFT holders will be able to reserve a pair of Cryptokicks iRL, which can then be …

South Korean tech giant LG Electronics announced that it has teamed up with Oorbit, a cloud-based technology platform and PIXELYNX, a company building an integrated music, gaming, and Web3 ecosystem, to bring the metaverse directly into the living rooms of viewers. Announced just in time for #CES2023, we’re excited to announce that we have partnered with @LGElectronics to bring interoperable gaming and social experiences directly to your LG Smart TVs. READ: https://t.co/nppJZe650B — Oorbit (@OorbitOnline) January 4, 2023 The collaboration is set to allow viewers to be able to explore interconnected virtual worlds, concerts, and AI multiplayer games through their …

Mainstream hype for the nonfungible token (NFT) market cooled down significantly in 2022, but that didn’t stop a host of popular and wealthy figures from stinking up the space with dreadful collections last year. In the 2022 edition of the worst influencer and celebrity NFT cash grabs, Cointelegraph takes a look at four projects seemingly designed to milk capital out of their fans pockets, while delivering very little. Tai Lopez — OG (Original Garage) Social Club First on the list is the oddball entrepreneur Tai Lopez, best known for his cheesy marketing campaigns that used to plague YouTube not so …

In this week’s newsletter, read about how nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in the Magic Eden marketplace showed “unsavory images.” Read about Final Fantasy developer Square Enix’s aggressive investments in blockchain gaming and how play-to-earn (P2E) will transition from the growth phase to maturation. In other news, check out metaverse developments throughout 2022. And don’t forget this week’s Nifty News featuring Solana NFTs’ surge in trading volume. ‘WTH did I just witness?’ Magic Eden shows porn after hosting service hacked Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden had recently assured its users that their NFTs are safe after pornographic images were spotted in its …

Recognized as one of the most turbulent years for the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, 2022 has still been vigorous for the metaverse. With over $120 billion invested in the first half of the year alone — according to a McKinsey report — the industry is anything but broken. Some of the most significant partnerships to date were sealed throughout 2022, with even a few unexpected institutions — JP Morgan, for instance — embracing the Web3 revolution despite their proverbial distaste for the decentralization concept. Here’s what you need to know about the influential developments, projects and events that shaped the …

Cointelegraph looks back on the best and worst-performing cryptocurrencies of 2022 among the top 100 assets by market capitalization. We used the highest and the lowest year-to-date (YTD) returns through the close of Dec. 25, 2022. Overall, Cryptoindex.com 100 (CIX100), an index that tracks the 100 best-performing cryptocurrencies, fell nearly 68% YTD, suggesting most top coins underperformed in 2022. Stablecoins are naturalomitted from the list below. Similarly, coins tracking the value of gold and similar mainstream assets have also been ignored. Instead, the coins mentioned below include decentralized currencies, smart contract tokens, exchange tokens, and others. Top five crypto of …

$4.2 trillion asset management firm Fidelity Investments has filed trademark applications in the United States for a host of Web3 products and services, including a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace and financial investment and crypto trading services in the metaverse. This is according to three trademark filings submitted to the United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO) on Dec. 21, of which was also highlighted by licensed trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis in a Dec. 27 tweet. #Fidelity has plans for the metaverse! The company has filed 3 trademark applications covering ▶️ NFTs + NFT Marketplaces ▶️ Metaverse Investment Services ▶️ Virtual Real …

Chinese telecom giant Huawei doesn’t believe current telecom infrastructure is enough to cope with the needs of the Metaverse, adding that 5G and 6G networks just might. The comments came from Huawei’s Middle East region's Chief Expert on Business & Strategy Consulting, Abhinav Purohit, who published a three-part blog series on Dec. 20 focused on the potential of the Metaverse sector and where telecom companies will fit into the picture. Describing what the Metaverse is, or what its actualization will look like, Purohit outlined that a “metaverse is a collective virtual shared space” which will “allow geographically distant participants to …

The crypto bear market has also been called a builder’s market by many leading figures and companies in the industry. New data from Nasdaq reveals that investors had this mindset as they continued to sink money into Web3, particularly metaverse-related projects. According to the data over the last year 216 metaverse funding deals were completed, totaling out to nearly US$2 billion in funding. At the top of the funding pool were “support” based services, aka the main components for building. “Digital architects, game designers, AI developers, content creators and custom metaverse services were suddenly needed to build metaverse experiences.." Animoca …