5 Best Metaverse Tokens to Watch for

Following the popularity of metaverse and cryptocurrency, metaverse tokens have also risen rather spectacularly. Here are the best 5 metaverse tokens to keep an eye on.

Many believe that with the creation of the crypto metaverse, a new era of the internet has begun. Metaverse is a term to describe a virtual universe, which has particularly gained momentum after Facebook rebranded itself as Meta. Some popular video games like Animal Crossing and Roblox have metaverse tendencies as they allow players to build their own worlds and basically "live" in them as their avatars.

But in the metaverse, things are more realistic and rather complicated. In the metaverse, users can socialize, go to work, make money, go to concerts, and attend sports events just like in the real world. By combining virtual, augmented, and extended reality of the real physical world, it's pretty clear that the metaverse is a big game-changer for the future.

Broadly speaking, the metaverse has been showing a sign of a shift in how we interact with technology and the virtual world. It's not just about casual interactions between users, but it also redefines the ownership of digital assets, as well as changes how brands advertise, how virtual currency is perceived, and a bunch of other facets in life.

One of the greatest things about metaverses is the fact that most of them have their own fully-functioning economy with their own native currency. The currency is called the metaverse token, and it can be used to make digital transactions within the metaverse. Here are some of the best metaverse tokens to keep an eye on.

1. AXS (Axie Infinity)

AXS is the native currency of Axie Infinity, one of the top-performing crypto games of 2021. Axie Infinity is developed by Sky Mavis, a technology-focused studio that is based in Vietnam.

Axie Infinity is built on Ethereum blockchain and classified as a play-to-earn game, which means that players can gain crypto rewards that actually have value outside the game. This is one of the aspects that has gotten people's attention and made the game so popular, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. You just have to play the game and earn money from the in-game rewards.

In a nutshell, the game is very similar to Pokemon, only it takes place in virtual space. Players can buy, breed, and raise cute Axies in order to compete with other players and earn AXS tokens. The Axies are all unique and one of a kind because they are Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). Therefore, players can also trade and sell their Axies in the marketplace in exchange for money.

Moreover, Axie Infinity's popularity has sky-rocketed in the last six months with a nearly 5,000% rise in daily players. In this year alone, the game has also seen massive gains of over 24,000% and naturally, has inspired the emergence of similar games. According to Coinmarketcap, as of now, the price of AXS is $102.40 with a global market cap of over $6 billion.

2. MANA (Decentraland)

Decentraland is a 3D virtual reality platform that is powered by the Ethereum blockchain. In this virtual world, players can explore the area and build various structures such as theme parks, art galleries, concert halls, and even real-working casinos where you can charge other players for visiting them. To visit the platform, there's no need to use fancy headsets since it's accessible from almost any internet browser. You don't even have to own any crypto if you only visit as a guest.

In Decentraland, the traversable virtual space is called LAND and it is divided into smaller parcels of 16 square feet each. These parcels can be bought and owned by the members of the community by using the game's native currency, MANA tokens. Once purchased, the landowner can create basically anything on it and sell it to investors if they want to.

People have built many creative structures starting from medieval dungeon mazes to real estates and bars. They can also hold events such as parties, festivals, and exhibitions. Interestingly, some parcels are organized into themed communities called Districts, enabling users to create shared spaces for those with common interests.

The native currency MANA is an ERC-20 token that is currently priced at $3.34 and available for purchase at several top crypto exchanges such as Binance, Kraken, and Coindesk. Presently, MANA has a market cap of over $6 billion.

By using MANA, players can buy and sell various in-game items, including costumes for avatars. Players can also convert their MANA into wrapped MANA (wMANA) and deposit it into a Decentralized Autonomous Organization wallet (DAO) in order to gain the right to vote on the future planning of the virtual world. Other than that, the landowners also get the chance to vote without having to convert their tokens.

3. SAND (Sandbox)

Essentially, Sandbox is very similar to Decentraland. It is a play-to-earn game that combines blockchain technology, NFT, and DeFi in a 3D metaverse. It allows players to create and customize their digital assets with free design tools. The in-game items can then be monetized as NFTs and sold for SAND tokens on the marketplace.

Sandbox was essentially launched way back in 2011 by Pixowl as a mobile game that was intended to rival Minecraft. The game became highly popular and generated over 40 million downloads worldwide. Seven years later, the game's co-founders Arthur Madrid and Sebastien Borget decided to take a step further and transform the game into a metaverse. The purpose is to let users own their creations and gain money from rewards.

The new project was then launched in 2020 and became one of the fastest-growing crypto games. For instance, the game has successfully raised a $93 million fundraising round from investors led by the Japanese company SoftBank. Sandbox also recently announced its partnerships with OpenSea, hip-hop rapper Snoop Dogg, CryptoKitties, the Walking Dead, and others.

SAND is the native token of the platform and it's used as the basis for all transactions within the universe. As a utility token, SAND can be used to play the game, customize their characters, and buy lands. Not only that, but SAND is also a governance token, which means that it can be used to vote on the changes to the platform through a DAO structure. SAND can be purchased on various crypto exchanges or earned through playing games and participating in contests. At the time of writing, the price of SAND is at $5.21 with a market cap of over $4 billion.

4. ENJ (Enjin Coin)

Enjin has a rather unique concept that is different from the ones we've mentioned on this list. Launched in 2009, Enjin is a leading online platform that lets users create and manage their NFTs. The goal is to make NFT accessible for anyone and make it easier to participate in the distribution of NFTs.

By integrating several metaverse gaming platforms, Enjin allows users to use their items across multiple games. Before NFTs, this was not possible. If you purchased an item from a specific game and you stopped playing, then the item was lost and there's nothing you can do about it.

Now, if you purchase something in a form of NFT, you will own the item no matter what happens with the game. You can either trade or sell it on the marketplace in exchange for money. At the time of writing, Enjin supports at least 70 game and app developers through its Adopter Program. The game ranges from open-world fantasy games to trading card games and virtual world-building games.

The Enjin platform is fueled by its native token called Enjin Coin (ENJ). As a utility token, ENJ is used to back the value of blockchain assets. The token is priced at $2.52 today with a market cap of more than $2 billion. Enjin Coin can be purchased on various crypto exchanges such as Binance, KuCoin, Crypto.com, Coinbase, and more.

5. RNDR (Render Token)

One of the most attractive aspects of metaverse is the picturesque view of the virtual world. People can make their dream worlds come true with 3D augmented reality visuals. Naturally, such a grand art establishment needs a lot of rendering and it needs to be speedy. This is what the Render network is trying to solve.

Basically, the Render network provides a decentralized GPU-based rendering solution for digital creators. It utilizes unused computer processing power to render digital content. The network essentially benefits two major groups: the creators and the node operators. Firstly, the creators can easily use the GPU power provided by the network and render the final images at higher speed and lower costs, since they don't have to purchase the computing equipment themselves. On the other hand, the node operators who rent out their spare GPU to the network will receive tokens as payment.

RNDR is the native utility token of the network that is used to pay the network participants. Creators can use RNDR to render almost any digital art such as animation, motion graphics, and more. At this moment, the price of RNDR is $4.20 and has a market cap of $768 million. In addition, RNDR Credit can be used as an alternative payment option for non-crypto users. RNDR Credit can be purchased via PayPal and Stripe from the RNDR website.

Final Notes

The growing popularity of metaverse is currently steering the crypto industry in an entirely new direction. Many experts believe that metaverse is more than just a game, but more like a successor of the internet. At some point in the future, we can expect the metaverse to fundamentally change how people interact with each other and how people interpret virtual items.

It's undeniable that metaverse is on the rise these days. Everyone seems to be talking about it and token prices have been rising, so it's really easy to get caught up in the hype. However, it's worth noting that metaverse is still relatively new to the crypto world. Keep in mind that cryptocurrency investments are still very risky, so it's not recommended to spend your money on them if you can't afford to lose them.

Therefore, before you invest, make sure to do proper research and understand the possible risks to avoid any type of crypto fraud you may encounter in the future.