There are thousands of different cryptocurrencies that cover all sorts of market segments. Some cryptos are mainly focused on digital cash functions like Bitcoin (BTC), while others, like Ethereum (ETH), focus on smart contract features that allow developers to launch all kinds of decentralized applications (dApps).
You can also find crypto projects specifically geared toward a single use case, such as powering a specific crypto app, decentralized exchange platform, NFT collection, or interactive platform.
Metaverse cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that facilitate transactions for a specific Web3 platform or network using NFTs to provide users with interactive experiences. Metaverse cryptos are becoming increasingly popular because they power innovative virtual experiences and digital worlds based on blockchain technology.
In this guide, we’ll learn all about the metaverse, how it works, and which crypto projects power it. We’ll also find out how to buy some of the most popular metaverse coins and tokens.
What Is the Metaverse?
The metaverse is an innovative concept best described as a virtual environment where users can engage in various activities by themselves or with each other.
The features of a specific metaverse can vary, but generally, users can socialize, play games, participate in virtual events, own virtual property, engage in financial transactions, or even work in some metaverses.
Although there are some centralized metaverse projects, most metaverses are decentralized, blockchain-based environments, powered by cryptocurrency transactions.
The metaverse is more than playing a game on your PC. Basically, it’s an environment where people can engage in various activities enhanced by digitalization. For example, many popular musicians, artists, and other performers organize metaverse concerts, festivals, parties, and art exhibitions.
In some metaverses, users can purchase virtual land, build virtual real estate, and socialize with friends online with the help of their digital avatars. You can fully immerse yourself in some metaverse environments with a VR set that brings your user experience to the next level.
One of the key elements of the metaverse is NFTs. Every piece of unique equipment, object, real estate, avatar clothing, or other digital collectibles is tokenized as NFTs. Users can simply store all of their digital belongings in their crypto wallets while all of the transactions are powered by the metaverse’s native cryptocurrency. Metaverse environments bring a high level of gamification into financial transactions and businesses.
Numerous traditional businesses already recognize the potential of the metaverse by opening virtual stores and services in selected metaverses. Brands like Gucci, Nike, Samsung, and many more are present in the metaverse, and users can visit their virtual stores from the comfort of their homes.
The metaverse is still in its infancy and only a handful of popular metaverse crypto projects exist but this is exactly why these projects have high future development potential.
Leading Metaverse Cryptocurrencies
Metaverse cryptocurrencies bring true innovation to the crypto market by allowing users to facilitate transactions in specific metaverse environments. These cryptocurrencies have far more utility than digital cash cryptos because they allow users to access a broad range of virtual experiences.
Let’s have a look at the most popular metaverse cryptocurrencies on the market.
Decentraland (MANA)
Decentraland (MANA) is one of the leading global metaverse coins. MANA is the native token of the Decentraland metaverse, which is an interactive virtual environment on the Ethereum blockchain.
Users can create a Decentraland account free of charge and customize their virtual avatars.
The Decentraland metaverse is huge and consists of numerous sectors dominated by specific themes and styles. Some areas of Decentraland are filled with virtual retail spots, areas for socializing, or event venues, while other areas are gaming hubs and parcels for virtual real estate.
In Decentraland, users can buy plots of virtual land and create houses, buildings, or any other type of object. For example, some companies, celebrities, or NFT artists buy land plots in Decentraland to create their own exhibition spaces, stores, or virtual homes. Users can display all types of unique objects in their land plots as NFTs.
Decentraland is one of the most advanced metaverse projects on the market because it allows users to engage in everything, from fun and games to business. This project showcases what most early-stage metaverse projects are striving for. One of the key reasons why Decentraland has huge development potential is that it’s the prime metaverse environment for businesses looking to join the metaverse.
The Sandbox (SAND)
The Sandbox (SAND) is a huge virtual environment that allows users to create custom mini-environments, games, and virtual experiences and buy land. Users can create their avatars and participate in numerous user-generated metaverse setups.
The best thing about the Sandbox is that it focuses on unique experiences. Anyone can sign up on the platform and use the Sandbox VoxEdit tool to design unique equipment and other objects in the form of NFTs. Users can freely buy and sell NFTs on the platform’s marketplace.
The Sandbox metaverse is incredibly huge and divided into land plots. Users can purchase land plots with the platform’s SAND token and use the game maker to design unique experiences on their land plots.
For example, a user can create a medieval-like fantasy environment with knights and monsters or a modern nightclub environment where users can socialize and party. The possibilities are practically endless because users can create any type of interactive environment within the Sandbox metaverse.
Users who just want to participate in activities and walk through the Sandbox metaverse can browse available experiences and enter them with their avatars. This means that you can play through experiences designed by thousands of other users. Besides individual users, the Sandbox is also home to numerous businesses that have bought land and opened company premises in the metaverse.
Enjin Coin (ENJ)
Enjin Coin (ENJ) is one of the most important metaverse coins on the market, even though the project doesn’t have its own metaverse environment yet.
Enjin is a blockchain hub for gaming communities that use NFTs. The Enjin ecosystem connects numerous blockchain gaming communities and provides them with the infrastructure for creating community chatrooms, marketplaces, digital economies, and in-game equipment in the form of NFTs.
Enjin (ENJ) isn’t a metaverse but it provides other projects, mainly blockchain games, with the means to introduce metaverse features, such as financial transactions, NFTs, and the deepening of social ties between community members.
Also, Enjin has a game development programming kit that allows users to easily create and launch their own blockchain games. This feature is somewhat similar to the Sandbox game maker because it gives power to users to create new, authentic gaming experiences.
Instead of building a single metaverse environment of its own, Enjin is focused on providing other developers with the tools for creating metaverses. VRJAM, Lost Relics, and Forest Knight are just some of the numerous metaverse-focused gaming environments that use the Enjin infrastructure.
Zilliqa (ZIL)
Zilliqa is a super-fast blockchain that uses a technological solution called sharding to distribute the network’s workload and process a huge number of transactions simultaneously.
Zilliqa isn’t a strictly metaverse project. This blockchain provides developers with programming infrastructure for launching all types of decentralized apps and crypto platforms. However, it’s also home to the Metapolis metaverse environment.
Metapolis is revolutionary among metaverse projects because it’s the first metaverse as a service platform on the market. This means that Metapolis is focused on providing businesses with a digital environment where they can showcase their features, interact with consumers, and conduct their daily operations.
Metapolis is still under development, but it’s definitely worth paying attention to because it’s highly scalable, thanks to the Ziilliqa blockchain. This means that once active, Metapolis will be able to support a high number of active users, which is exactly what businesses are expecting from metaverse environments. All of the transactions on Metapolis will use ZIL coins.
Gala Games (GALA)
Gala Games (GALA) enables users to step up their gaming experience with the use of blockchain technology and NFTs.
Similarly to ENJIN, Gala provides developers with an infrastructure for launching blockchain-based games. Some of the trending games on Gala include Spider Tanks, Superior, and Town Star. Games based on Gala use in-game transactions with GALA tokens, and users can buy all sorts of in-game equipment on the Gala marketplace.
Also, users can customize and create their own unique equipment for various Gala games. These unique objects and accessories are stored as NFTs, and most of them are user-generated instead of created by game developer teams.
The Gala infrastructure is basically a metaverse generator because it allows developers and users to customize gaming experiences and introduce in-game economies stored in a decentralized manner on the blockchain.
Where to Buy Metaverse Crypto?
There are numerous additional metaverse cryptocurrencies besides the ones listed in this guide, but these are the most popular ones based on market capitalization and trading volume.
The easiest way to buy these cryptocurrencies is on a centralized cryptocurrency exchange platform. When choosing a crypto exchange, it’s best to stick with popular, trustworthy platforms. Luckily, you can find the leading metaverse cryptos on the most popular crypto exchanges.
Binance
Binance is the largest and most popular centralized crypto exchange platform on the market. You can find more than 600 digital currencies on the exchange, including the leading metaverse cryptocurrencies.
Binance supports easy crypto purchases with credit and debit cards. If you want to fund your account with fiat currency and then spend it afterward, you can do so with a bank account transaction.
The platform has a peer-to-peer (P2P) trading feature for users looking to purchase crypto directly from other platform users. This trading method supports more than 100 payment methods depending on your region.
In terms of trading features, Binance supports classic spot trading, margin trading, and crypto derivatives. Furthermore, Binance has its own NFT marketplace with a wide range of NFTs based on its Binance Chain.
Binance is known for very low fees, and the average trading fee is just 0.1%. Binance is available in most global regions.
Coinbase
Coinbase is a veteran cryptocurrency exchange platform from the US. The exchange is regulated under US law and supports more than 160 leading digital currencies. You’ll find all of the most popular metaverse cryptos on Coinbase.
The platform is great for beginners with limited crypto trading experience because all of the trading is done through the Coinbase instant buy/sell feature. You just need to specify which crypto you want to buy, choose your payment methods, and facilitate the trade.
When it comes to payment methods, Coinbase supports bank card purchases and bank account deposits. However, bank card purchases incur quite high fees of 2.5%. It’s better to deposit fiat currency into your account and spend it on crypto.
The only downside of Coinbase is that it has very high fees of around 1% per trade. If you’re looking for advanced features, such as spot trading and margin trading, you should use the Coinbase Pro platform, which also has lower fees compared to Coinbase.
KuCoin
KuCoin is one of the leading global crypto exchange platforms. The exchange supports more than 400 coins and tokens, which means you’ll find all the prominent metaverse cryptos on the platform. As for trading features, KuCoin supports instant trading, P2P, margin trading, and crypto derivatives.
The instant trading feature allows users to buy crypto quickly with a credit or debit card, while the P2P option supports various payment methods, such as PayPal, GooglePay, and less popular local payment options. KuCoin also has a third-party crypto purchase feature that enables users to buy crypto with the help of fiat-crypto payment gateways like Banxa and Simplex.
The platform is known for very low trading fees. The basic trading fee is 0.1%, and it can drop even further if you have a high monthly trading volume or hold a certain amount of KuCoin Tokens (KCS).
Buying Metaverse Crypto on an Exchange Platform
Let’s take a look at the process of buying metaverse crypto on a popular centralized cryptocurrency exchange platform.
The process is similar on most exchange platforms. In this example, we’ll buy some MANA on Binance:
- First, you need to open a platform account. Go to Binance, click on Register and follow the instructions.
- You’ll need to choose a registration method. The available options are email, phone number, Google, and Apple account registration.
- Once you’re done with creating your account, you need to deposit some fiat currency into your platform account or buy crypto directly with a bank card.
- If you choose to conduct a bank account transaction, you’ll need to add your bank account details to your Binance account and initiate a transaction to the platform.
- However, it’s easier for beginners to choose the bank card payment method in the Buy Crypto section of the platform.
- When you choose this option, you’ll be required to specify your fiat currency and the amount of cash you want to spend on crypto.
- In the lower section of the screen, you should choose MANA from the dropdown menu.
- You’ll see exactly how much MANA you’ll get for your money.
- Proceed with the purchase. If it’s your first time, you’ll need to add your bank card details.
- Once you initiate the transaction the purchase will take a few minutes and you’ll receive your MANA tokens in your Binance account.
Conclusion
Metaverse cryptocurrencies make up a small portion of the total crypto market, however, the popularity of metaverse projects is rising, and it’s possible that the market share of these cryptos will expand in the future.
The coins described in this guide are the top metaverse cryptos, and if you want to buy some of them, just follow our instructions. The buying process can be a bit different depending on the exchange platform or the payment methods, but the key steps are the same on most platforms.