As per a recent report published by DappRadar, the first quarter of 2023 witnessed a surge in NFT trading in virtual worlds, generating a trading volume of $311 million.
Virtual land trading recorded an all-time high in this quarter, with 147,000 trades taking place, largely driven by the popularity of platforms such as Yuga Labs’ Otherside and MG Land.
The report highlights a 237% increase in trading volume for Otherdeed NFTs, which are linked to land in the Otherside metaverse, reaching $222 million. One Otherdeed NFT even sold for a whopping 186 ETH, which was approximately $2.85 million at the time – the highest price ever recorded for virtual land.
The announcement of the “Second Trip” for holders of Otherdeed NFTs by Yuga Labs likely contributed to its increase in trading volume. Other virtual world decentralized apps (dapps) that made the list of top dapps in the last quarter include The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, and Decentraland.
However, lesser-known Createra Genesis Land topped the list with $14 million in trading volume, backed by a $10 million funding round led by A16z in January 2023, which focuses on enabling user-generated metaverse creations.
The report also mentions the increase in trading volume for 10KTF, a 2021 digital fashion shop acquired by Yuga Labs in November 2022, across several collections. Moreover, Decentraland’s Metaverse Fashion Week has increased the number of unique active wallets and trading volume by 63% over the last week.
As of the first quarter of 2023, DappRadar reported $417.5 million invested in blockchain gaming and metaverse projects.
This highlights the growing interest in the metaverse and Web3 gaming in the crypto industry, which continues to receive significant investment from both traditional tech giants like Sony and blockchain ecosystems like Polygon.
