Metaverse cryptos owe their recent popularity partly to Facebook rebranding to Meta, the prefix they now share. However, the fundamental reason behind their tremendous success is their potential to positively disrupt the large tech companies running the alternative virtual universes.
So, how exactly do they work, and what is the potential of the whole sector?
What are metaverse cryptos?
The idea underlying any metaverse is to offer its users an augmented reality experience, which comes hand in hand with the questions of personal information protection as every individual player spending their time online needs reassurance of secure transactions. Filling the gap between virtual reality applications and transaction processing is exactly the function of blockchain and (metaverse) cryptocurrencies.
And here are the simple reasons why blockchain technology serves this purpose better than any traditional centralized platform.
Immutability to hacking attacks
Data leaks are a frequent notion and the first and foremost thing to consider for every virtual reality platform. This issue is solved efficiently by distributing all the valuable data throughout the system rather than storing them on a single server. Such an approach means that the ecosystem can be compromised only by the 51% attack.
Transaction speed
Instant transactions are the gateway to global user engagement. The consensus mechanism means that transactions can be processed on an on-demand basis and that they are secure and traceable.
What are the best metaverse cryptos?
Let us now offer our list of the top five metaverse cryptos for your consideration. Apart from the strong fundamentals, public attention they have received recently was an important criterion in our compilation.
Axie Infinity (AXS)
| Ticker | AXS |
| Market Cap | $8 914 299 519.40 |
| Circulating Supply | 59 985 000 AXS (22%) |
| Total Token Supply | 270 000 000 AXS |
| Where to buy | Binance, Mandala Exchange, OKEx, FTX, and Huobi Global |
The Axie Infinity world has been on the market since 2018, and it has seen the greatest growth compared to other metaverse coins in the third quarterer of the year 2021. As of this writing, its governance token Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) is ranking 23rd in the global rating by market capitalization.
The network, which is partially run by the players, is a blockchain-based game that bears many similarities to Pokémon and Tamagotchi. The gamers can breed and raise Axies — creatures that are the non-fungible tokens, AXS.
While being NFTs, these creatures differ in the design chosen by their owners from multiple options (creature type, body parts, etc.) and battle skills resulting from combinations of these options. They also guarantee their owners’ vote rights when key decisions are made on the network policy and the distribution of the Axie Community Treasury funds.
When battling, the Axie creatures earn in-game Small Love Potion (SLP) — the tokens needed to breed and raise new creatures.
The system operates on the Ethereum blockchain, using ERC-20 and the proof-of-work (POW) consensus mechanism.
Out of more than 22% of the total supply circulating now, 29% was allocated for staking and 11% to the Binance Launchpad IEO sale participants. About 4% was sold privately.
Decentraland (MANA)
| Ticker | MANA |
| Market Cap | $4 661 632 557.91 |
| Circulating Supply | 1 816 927 791 MANA (83%) |
| Total Token Supply | 2 194 008 027 MANA |
| Where to buy | Binance, Coinbase, Houbi, Gate.io, Kraken, FTX, Uniswap, KuCoin, BitHumb |
The Decentraland coin MANA saw its initial coin offering (ICO) back in 2017. The Decentraland Foundation was created for the management purpose prior to the platform in 2015 and defined itself as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). It currently holds less than 20% of the total token supply and sees delegating the project management to the users as one of its goals.
The multi-layered Decentraland platform operates the global Ethereum network to share the virtual world through interactive applications. It also enables in-world payments and communication between users.
There are two types of assets traded on the platform:
- MANA is the cryptocurrency used in the purchase of virtual goods, services, and real estate (LAND).
- LAND is the real estate measured not in bytes or hectares but in parcels — the NFT governing on-platform operations.
By collecting the blockchain smart contracts, users can vote and influence the network enhancements and updates.
Enjin (ENJ)
| Ticker | ENJ |
| Market Cap | $8 914 299 519.40 |
| Circulating Supply | 59 985 000 ENJ (22%) |
| Total Token Supply | 1 000 000 000 ENJ |
| Where to buy | Binance, Mandala Exchange, OKEx, CoinTiger, and FTX |
The Enjin gaming platform is the oldest in our rating dating back to 2009. However, it did not go public until 2017. Presently, it claims to have served more than 20 mln clients in the decade. It is one of the leading game development platforms running on Ethereum, where game designers can tokenize in-game items using the homonymous Enjin coin, an ERC-20 token.
Enjin (ENJ), the blockchain native token, can be minted and traded on the platform. This option became available in September 2019 when the Enjin Marketplace functionality was launched.
Game developers use ENJ to mint the ERC-1155 token. The company co-founder Witek Radomsky created the script for the unique Ethereum-based ERC-1155 token that enables minting of both non-fungible and fungible tokens. Hence, the ENJ coin is being gradually replaced.
Meanwhile, significant security renovations and other updates never stop in the system. After a series of audits in 2017, 2018, and 2019, by different smart-contract editors and developers, in October 2020, Enjin introduced a bug bounty program facilitated by HackerOne, a cyber security company.
The SandBox (SAND)
| Ticker | SAND |
| Market Cap | $2 131 423 077 |
| Circulating Supply | 892 246 119.22 SAND (30%) |
| Total Token Supply | 3 000 000 000 SAND |
| Where to buy | Binance, KuCoin, BitHumb |
The native token of the SandBox gaming platform, SAND saw its ICO on March 23, 2021, and is backed by the tech giant SoftBank who invested an incredible $93 mln in the metaverse game. That event triggered the interest of worldwide investors who still have it under the radar, confirming the high growth potential of the token.
The SandBox ecosystem is built on Ethereum, and the SAND token is an ERC-20 type utility token.
The virtual platform offers its users the following opportunities:
- Building 3D gaming applications with the Game Maker tool after joining the Game Maker Fund. The free tool is a visual scripting toolbox, not requiring any coding skills. On completion, the users can share their games in the gallery with friends.
- Creating in-game assets with the VoxEdit tool to turn them into the Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
- Trading the voxel assets created in VoxEdit through the decentralized Marketplace tool.
- Owning a virtual plot (LAND) to rent out to other platform users or populate.
The platform covers the gas fees for the user transactions processed on the Ethereum blockchain via the ERC-1776 token. The Sandbox gets 5% of its from marketplace transaction fees, and the rest is earned from LAND and NFT sales.
SandBox views Roblox and Minecraft as the main competitors they are going to disrupt, offering game creators the advantage of decentralization.
Bottom line
The metaverse cryptos we have described above lead the current trend. However, there are many more opportunities to discover if you take a thorough look at our exhaustive metaverse coins list and study their fundamentals.
If you are still wondering which metaverse crypto to invest in this year or in 2022, the answer will depend on your profit target and how long you are planning to hold your positions.