Virtual Real Estate Plot Sells for Close to $1 Million
The actual world real estate is still on the way to recovery from the adverse effects of covid-19. Although a complete recovery is expected towards the end of 2021, virtual land deals are likely to witness a new surge. Nowadays, plots are being sold regularly in virtual worlds such as Decentraland.
In a record deal, a section of virtual land in the blockchain-powered Online World Decentraland was sold at $9,00000 in the first weeks of June 21, confirms Decentraland Foundation. This move is expected to pave the way for similar deals in the future.
People interested in virtual deals point out that the risks associated with actual real estate get eliminated in virtual land deals.
Despite a surge in virtual deals, not many are aware of how these deals work. Transactions in Decentraland take place through non-fungible tokens or NFTs. NFTs are crypto-assets that record the status of ownership regarding digital items that are part of a blockchain. So, contrary to the majority of the digital items that can be infinitely reproduced, every NFT is associated with an exclusive digital sign. Almost seven months into 2021, NFTs have skyrocketed in popularity and price. Many industry experts view NFTs as the future of ownership deals.
The decentralized 3d VR platform, Decentraland is backed by the Ethereum blockchain. The platform was made accessible to the public in the early 2020s. It is a virtual world with its own currency, economy, and social event calendars. The values of virtual plots through such virtual worlds are increasing and more sales are anticipated towards the future. NFTs can be viewed by anyone but the buyer retains certain rights regarding the online deals.
As per the DappRadar website, this is the costliest virtual land deal using NFTs. DappRadar website analyses the NFT sales data. An investment vehicle, called Republic Realm was the buyer. Republic Realm is managed by Republic, an investment platform based in the U.S. Prominent investors are involved in the system of Republic Realm. Further, this is the biggest land deal ever as the total virtual place sold as per the deal is more than 16 virtual acres. The total cost of the land was estimated to be 1,295,000 MANA. MANA is its own cryptocurrency from Decentraland. The buyer Republic Realm is not new to such purchases on the same platform.
In yet another deal earlier this month, another unit of virtual real estate secured a deal of about US$6,50,000 in sandbox, a blockchain-enabled virtual world. Meanwhile, a deal worth about us$5,00,000 was recorded in Somnium space, said Arthur Sychov, founder, and CEO, Somnium.
Many are apprehensive about these trends as they are unable to understand why huge amounts of money are being spent on something that is only a part of the digital world when real estate deals are suffering due to the coronavirus. However, in the upcoming years, virtual deals are surely going to continue.
