Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_62fe0131dec0c" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>A mocked Facebook post features Zuckerberg’s avatar standing in front of miniature models of the Eiffel Tower and the Tibidabo Cathedra</li>
 <li>Meta’s metaverse division, Reality Labs, is losing billions of dollars a year</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Meta appears lost in its vision of what 3D virtual worlds should look like in 2022, according to some. The company&#8217;s release of its &#8220;Horizon Worlds&#8221; in Spain and France this week has been mocked by hundreds online, following CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement post on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10114625396809351&amp;set=a.612287952871" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook</a>.



The post features Zuckerberg’s avatar standing in front of miniature models of the Eiffel Tower and the Tibidabo Cathedral on a bed of grass. The problem? The quality of the graphics appears to be rendered in the previous century.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse looks worse than Quake did in 1996. <a href="https://t.co/kjs80Yn6Px">pic.twitter.com/kjs80Yn6Px</a>&mdash; Secretary of State for Socially Uncaring Health (@HUncaring) <a href="https://twitter.com/HUncaring/status/1559836674171043840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 17, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Formerly known as Facebook Horizon, Horizon Worlds is a virtual reality online metaverse game designed for “everybody,” despite being limited to US and Canadian persons over the age of 18.&nbsp;



Its release in two European countries on Monday follows years of development and over $10 billion dollars already spent to get the metaverse title to its current state. Meta announced its game towards the end of September 2019, two years before the company changed its name from Facebook.



Zuckerberg has been mocked online before for his company’s pursuits of virtual worlds. Late last year, 3-D animation studio Surreal Entertainment spun up a viral <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibm3WhfLk08&amp;t=60s&amp;ab_channel=surrealentertainment" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">parody video</a>, based loosely on a demo announcement from Meta.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Reality hitting Reality Labs</h3>



Meta is determined to see its metaverse bet through, despite burning substantial cash reserves in the process. Late last month, the company reported quarterly losses in the billions over slumping sales stemming from its metaverse unit, Reality Labs.



Reality cost Meta more than <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/meta-metaverse-unit-has-lost-5-7b-this-year/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$5 billion in missed sales</a> for the second quarter of this year, adding more than $10 billion in losses to its previous yearly earnings. Its metaverse arm has now racked up more than $16 billion in losses over the past 18 months.



Meta’s metaverse play could prove to be a risky bet in an already crowded games market dominated by the likes of Activision Blizzard and Riot Games.&nbsp;



While those studios have yet to formally announce a title related to the metaverse, questions remain over how Meta intends to steal market share or attract gamers away from the titles designed by the incumbent leaders.



Gamers, already exhausted by the concept of <a href="https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ubisoft-nft-quartz-youtube-dislikes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">non-fungible tokens</a> and metaverse concepts, <a href="https://www.thegamer.com/facebooks-horizon-worlds-broken-metaverse-unimaginative-games/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">could hardly be expected</a> to engage in a virtual world that sit on par with Runescape-level graphics, critics say.



And while blocky world-building game Minecraft is much beloved, Horizon Worlds is yet to offer up a substantial level of user engagement and functionality to compete.



Still, Meta is defiantly plowing ahead.&nbsp;



According to research conducted by crypto asset manager <a href="https://grayscale.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Grayscale_Metaverse_Report_Nov2021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Grayscale</a>, the metaverse is tipped to be a trillion-dollar yearly revenue opportunity across advertising, social commerce, digital events, hardware and creator monetization.



Epic Games, the company behind one of the world’s most popular games Fortnite, raised an eye-watering $2 billion dollars in April in a bid to accelerate its metaverse ambitions.&nbsp;



Despite substantial funding, questions center on how developers will best attempt to monetize efforts in a world seemingly designed for decentralization and individual ownership of digital assets.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



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Meta’s Metaverse Play Ridiculed Online

Bessie Liu

<div id="highlights-block_62e2d7671cba4" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Web3 gaming remains popular despite the bear market, Cathy Hackl tells Blockworks</li>
 <li>“I hope the future is more PokemonGo and less Ready Player One,&#8221; she says</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Cathy Hackl first experienced the wonders of virtual reality (VR) over ten years ago and was convinced that it would be the future of storytelling.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-medium"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="200" height="300" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cathy-HeadshotCathy-HacklCathy-Hackl-AR-VR-Futurist-Speaker-Future-200x300.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-24823" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cathy-HeadshotCathy-HacklCathy-Hackl-AR-VR-Futurist-Speaker-Future-200x300.jpg?w=200 200w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cathy-HeadshotCathy-HacklCathy-Hackl-AR-VR-Futurist-Speaker-Future-200x300.jpg?w=683 683w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cathy-HeadshotCathy-HacklCathy-Hackl-AR-VR-Futurist-Speaker-Future-200x300.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cathy-HeadshotCathy-HacklCathy-Hackl-AR-VR-Futurist-Speaker-Future-200x300.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cathy-HeadshotCathy-HacklCathy-Hackl-AR-VR-Futurist-Speaker-Future-200x300.jpg?w=1365 1365w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cathy-HeadshotCathy-HacklCathy-Hackl-AR-VR-Futurist-Speaker-Future-200x300.jpg?w=171 171w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cathy-HeadshotCathy-HacklCathy-Hackl-AR-VR-Futurist-Speaker-Future-200x300.jpg?w=174 174w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cathy-HeadshotCathy-HacklCathy-Hackl-AR-VR-Futurist-Speaker-Future-200x300.jpg?w=146 146w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cathy-HeadshotCathy-HacklCathy-Hackl-AR-VR-Futurist-Speaker-Future-200x300.jpg?w=53 53w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cathy-HeadshotCathy-HacklCathy-Hackl-AR-VR-Futurist-Speaker-Future-200x300.jpg?w=33 33w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /><figcaption>Cathy Hackl</figcaption></figure></div>


She began looking for job opportunities in the space and found herself working for cinematic VR studio <a href="https://vrtogether.eu/future-lighthouse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Future Lighthouse</a>, then later she took a position at HTC Vive — a company that creates VR headsets —as its VR evangelist.&nbsp;



After a few more gigs in the space, she eventually landed a role at Magic Leap as an enterprise strategist, where she was first exposed to the concept of the metaverse. She decided to launch her own consultancy and dove in to Web3, with a specific focus on gaming, virtual fashion and NFTs.



<a href="https://twitter.com/elasticideas/status/1429206436719046661" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dubbed</a> the “godmother of the metaverse,&#8221; Hackl spoke with Blockworks about her experience in the space and the technology she is most excited about building.&nbsp;



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Blockworks: How would you describe the metaverse to someone who doesn&#8217;t understand it?&nbsp;



Hackl: First of all, try to get away from the hype. There’s a lot of pollution around the term, but I think what people need to start understanding is that it is a successor state to today’s mobile internet. The metaverse is a further convergence of our physical and digital lives, it’s about virtual shared experiences that exist in both virtual spaces and the physical world. Many different technologies enable the metaverse, and it can not be built by one single company.&nbsp;



Blockworks: Many people I know who don’t quite grasp the metaverse concept always tell me that they’re put off by the idea of moving to a virtual world. What would you say to those people?



Hackl: It’s a misconception that the metaverse is only VR [virtual reality]. I hope the future is more PokemonGo and less Ready Player One. The physical world is part of the metaverse, it just hasn’t been fully enabled. A big component of things we do on our phones in our current lives moves into our physical world in virtual form. I don’t think that we’re going to live with VR headsets in our hands all the time. That’s not the future I’m building toward. I think it will more likely be some type of wearable with a layer of virtual data.&nbsp;



Blockworks: What trends are you currently seeing in the space?&nbsp;



Hackl: One of the things I&#8217;ve noticed with some of the brands that I work with is that some of the NFT [non-fungible token] projects that they were initially thinking of dropping in the summer or the fall, they&#8217;re holding them a little until 2023 — depending on how the market rebounds on the crypto side. What I haven&#8217;t seen is any slowdown in gaming — there is continued engagement, continued excitement and continued investment in creating these experiences.&nbsp;



Blockworks: What projects are you most excited about?&nbsp;



Hackl: I&#8217;m excited about the next level of social interaction. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are really active in gaming and very much involved in it. When I asked my kids what Roblox is, they responded to me and said that “it&#8217;s a community where I spend time with my friends, and I build nice things.” So the progression of social is something I&#8217;m really excited about. From the NFT side, I&#8217;m interested in how blockchain technology is going to influence identity management. Our wallets and our avatars are going to become increasingly more important as we head into Web3. 



Learn more: <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/can-gamefi-still-unlock-the-metaverse/">Can GameFi Still Unlock the Metaverse?</a>



Blockworks: What have been your experiences being a woman in a predominately male-dominated space?&nbsp;&nbsp;



Hackl: It hasn&#8217;t always been easy. I do feel that I&#8217;ve got a certain level of recognition or appreciation from the community, so that&#8217;s been wonderful. One of the things that I&#8217;m trying to achieve with the fact that I&#8217;m such a public-facing figure is that I want other women and minority folks to see my face out there because I&#8217;m not the typical face that you think of when you think of technology. I will gladly take virtual bullets right now. So that more people behind me, more women and minorities feel that they can come and be very public about what they&#8217;re doing.&nbsp;



Blockworks: What advice would you give to younger women and women of color who are moving into the space?&nbsp;



Hackl: If you have the chance to build community or build a project, these are really exciting times to be testing the waters. I’m not saying you should quit your job, but it’s a great time to start experimenting. What I&#8217;ve noticed is a lot of people in the traditional Web2 space are reinvigorated by the metaverse and by what&#8217;s happening with Web3. They want to be a part of it.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



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‘Godmother of the Metaverse’ Says Web3 Is ​​the Next Level of Social Interaction

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_621cfe7a9bccb" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Seoul aims to become the first city to enter the metaverse, Mayor Oh Se-hoon said last November</li>
 <li>The country does not currently permit the use of NFTs or token issuance in gaming</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



South Korea will spend at least $186.7 million, or 223.7 billion Korean won, to create its metaverse ecosystem, according to a <a href="https://doc.msit.go.kr/SynapDocViewServer/viewer/doc.html?key=dcc6cbad6011442e8caf03550a0e7ea7&amp;convType=html&amp;convLocale=ko_KR&amp;contextPath=/SynapDocViewServer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a> from the country’s Ministry of Science and Information and Communications Technology. 



The investment is a part of South Korea’s “Digital New Deal” — a set of policies that aim to help build out emerging digital technologies such as the metaverse and artificial intelligence platforms.



“It is important to create a world-class metaverse ecosystem as the starting point to intensively foster a new hyper-connected industry,” Park Yungyu, the ministry’s head of communication and policy, said in a translated statement.



The government agency said the capital will go toward the metaverse in particular, which it hopes will become a platform enabling industries and businesses to thrive.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The metaverse has the potential to create 1.5 million jobs, and the country plans to produce over 40,000 professionals that specialize in the nascent space, the ministry <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/south-korea-could-take-over-the-metaverse-through-gaming-industry-players-say/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stated in January</a>. South Korea’s government, at the time, endeavored to make the country the fifth-largest metaverse market by 2026.



“I’m very much keen to believe that Korea is positioned to become one of the biggest metaverse players,” Alex Salnikov, co-founder at NFT marketplace Rarible, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/south-korea-could-take-over-the-metaverse-through-gaming-industry-players-say/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">previously told Blockworks</a>.



In an effort to push the country to the top of the global metaverse market, the Seoul Metropolitan Government <a href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2021/11/10/seoul-to-become-the-first-city-to-enter-the-metaverse-what-will-it-look-like" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> that it wanted to build “Metaverse Seoul” last November.



By 2023, Seoul aims to create a metaverse where citizens can deal with civil complaints and consultations — virtually. Using virtual reality headsets, citizens could visit a virtual city hall as avatars instead of having to go in real life.



Seoul aims to become the first city to enter the metaverse, the capital’s mayor, Oh Se-hoon, said last November.



“The &#8216;Metaverse Seoul&#8217; initiative announced last year, and the commitment by the South Korean government to lead the global metaverse race in five years, certainly puts the country at the forefront,” Noah Gaynor, co-founder of metaverse startup Parcel, said to Blockworks. “But based on what we&#8217;re seeing, and the decentralized nature of the open metaverse, no single country or organization will rule the metaverse. This is a truly global movement with no geographical boundaries.”



The metaverse, however, is commonly associated with cryptoassets such as NFTs (non-fungible tokens). South Korea currently prohibits the use of any NFTs or token issuance in its gaming — which may pose a threat to its ambitious metaverse plans.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



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South Korea To Pour $187M Into ‘World-class Metaverse Ecosystem’

<div id="highlights-block_61f9737b45393" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Virtual reality headsets offer early exposure to the metaverse for investors, according to the bank, which described the technology as “an entry ticket to the metaverse”</li>
 <li>Morgan Stanley expects the metaverse to replace the mobile internet with a more “immersive experience”</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The metaverse has been a hot-button term, with corporations ranging from <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/facebook-ceo-metaverse-will-be-holy-grail-of-social-experiences/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Meta</a> to <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/microsoft-bets-big-on-the-metaverse-with-68-7b-deal-for-activision-blizzard/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft</a> using it in their business plans. But recently massive investment banks such as Morgan Stanley have added it to their lexicon as well.



The Wall Street giant said in a note to investors that the nascent virtual space in China alone would become an $8 trillion market in the future — the same valuation fellow investment bank Goldman Sachs recently forecast the metaverse would be worth globally. 



The actual value could be even higher: Morgan Stanley said it excluded NFTs from its metaverse valuation because “restriction on cryptocurrencies creates uncertainty on the potential “blue-sky” opportunity in non-fungible tokens.” New verticals such as virtual concerts and other digital collectibles were also excluded.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Analysts at the investment bank predict the metaverse’s initial total addressable market (TAM) in China will be approximately $4 trillion, as it replaces the mobile internet with a more “immersive experience.”&nbsp;



Once the metaverse begins disrupting offline activity, such as vehicle test-drives, real-estate showings and education, that opportunity will swell to $8 trillion.



“The metaverse will become the next generation platform to replace the mobile internet,” the note said. “We expect the metaverse TAM to be expansive and go beyond the current online consumption market, which is mainly dominated by e-commerce and online entertainment spending.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Headsets provide early exposure</h3>



Virtual reality headsets offer early exposure to the metaverse for investors, according to the bank, which described the technology as “an entry ticket to the metaverse.” These include investments in hardware such as Goertek, Sunny and Luxshare, along with semiconductors such as MediaTek, Will and TSMC.



Garrette David, co-founder of Web3 startup Atomic Form, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/how-megabanks-goldman-sachs-morgan-stanley-are-talking-about-the-metaverse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">described</a> the bank’s mentions of the metaverse as “a huge positive,” adding it signals institutional adoption for cryptocurrency as an asset class at-large.



“Given the speed at which they’re reporting it, I would say we are definitely mainstream,” David told Blockworks.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“It took banks years to publicly sell interests in, or comment on, the economics behind public networks and blockchains.”</blockquote>



However, <a href="https://www.morganstanley.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Morgan Stanley</a> said mainstream adoption of the metaverse will “take a long time, given major technological and regulatory hurdles.”



“We are already living in a digital world, spending six hours-plus per day online, so mass adoption of the metaverse will require significantly better immersive experience versus the current mobile internet offerings,” the note said.



Potential regulatory hurdles include the Chinese government’s “increasing focus on minors&#8217; addiction, personal information protection, data security [and] openness of ecosystem.”



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Morgan Stanley Sees $8 Trillion Metaverse Market — In China Alone

<div id="highlights-block_61d3430a480bd" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>CEEK, a VR streaming platform, first hinted at a potential future collaboration with the brand in a Dec. 7 tweet</li>
 <li>CEEK founder Mary Spio told Blockworks that the reports alleging that H&#038;M is currently in partnership with her company are not true</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Retail giant H&amp;M is not opening a 3D store in the metaverse, despite widely-circulated media <a href="https://in.mashable.com/tech/26529/hm-jumps-into-metaverse-opens-its-first-virtual-store" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a>. 



H&amp;M, the second-largest clothing retailer in the world, quickly dismissed the rumors in an email to Blockworks on Monday. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> “I&#8217;d like to confirm that we are not opening a store in Metaverse,” a spokesperson from H&amp;M said. </blockquote>



Rumors initially emerged after a tweet from virtual reality (VR) developer CEEK on Dec. 7, showcasing a concept project for a VR version of an H&amp;M store that hinted at a potential collaboration between the two.



“Yes we’ve seen the tweet from them but it’s not a collaboration with Ceek,” the spokesperson added, but did not specify future involvement with the Florida-based firm. 



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Shopping in the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/metaverse?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#metaverse</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24CEEK&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$CEEK</a> Concept VR store presented to <a href="https://twitter.com/hm?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@hm</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CEEK?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CEEK</a> Creating mainstream use cases for <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24CEEK&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$CEEK</a> + scaling <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Virtualreality?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Virtualreality</a> beyond games. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VRAPP?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VRAPP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CEEKVR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CEEKVR</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NFT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NFT</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VR</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CEEKVenues?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CEEKVenues</a> 👉🏽 More at <a href="https://t.co/oAvCTgp2Bk">https://t.co/oAvCTgp2Bk</a> <a href="https://t.co/OI4BFkyUAw">pic.twitter.com/OI4BFkyUAw</a>&mdash; Ceek (@CEEK) <a href="https://twitter.com/CEEK/status/1468288936921468931?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 7, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



CEEK founder and CEO Mary Spio told Blockworks that the reports alleging that H&amp;M is currently in partnership with her company are false as well. 



However, there have been ongoing talks of future collaboration with the metaverse-related platform and H&amp;M USA, specifically.



&#8220;There has never been any statement from CEEK that we&#8217;re partnering with H&amp;M on a metaverse store,&#8221; Spio said. &#8220;It was a concept that was presented to [them] last year. We&#8217;re in discussions with them. That&#8217;s basically what this [tweet] is.&#8221;



Various media <a href="https://in.mashable.com/tech/26529/hm-jumps-into-metaverse-opens-its-first-virtual-store" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outlets </a>previously reported that customers could walk through a virtual store in a 3D virtual world, also known as CEEK City Universe, and choose a digital clothing item offered by H&amp;M to purchase. Users could then buy the digital collectibles via a virtual currency, dubbed <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ceek-vr/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CEEK</a>, to wear online. 



&#8220;We are in discussions with different people at H&amp;M to make this a reality, but this is not something that&#8217;s a reality as of now,&#8221; Spio added. &#8220;I believe that this misinformation is probably put out there to spread FUD.&#8221;



CEEK is currently trading up 0.31% at $0.71 at time of publication. According to <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ceek-vr/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">C</a><a href="https://www.coinbase.com/price/ceek-vr" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">oinbase</a>, the token has declined by 22.5% in the past 30 days. 



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



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<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>

No, H&M Is Not Opening a Store in the Metaverse

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_615747369c546" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Crypto, with about 220 million users, has “long way to go” to reach potential as sectors such as DeFi have reached only a fraction of that audience </li>
 <li>Grider expects crypto to be the next wave of the internet</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Grayscale Investment’s head of research said at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit in New York City last month that as crypto moves into the metaverse, it is going beyond NFTs into sectors such as gaming and virtual reality.



“I don’t know that we’re absolutely there yet, but there’s definitely a lot of interesting use cases that are being built out around that,” David Grider said. “As the industry matures and evolves, I think the tech and adoption will follow.”



Grider joined Grayscale in August after working for nearly two years as head of digital assets research at FundStrat Global Advisors. He had co-founded Aenigma Capital in 2017, an investment company focused on emerging technology ventures at the intersection of fintech and internet innovation.&nbsp;



The head of research noted that he expects crypto to be the next wave of the internet. While the internet has billions of users, Grider said, crypto users are estimated at 220 million, and those within DeFi total between 1 million and 3 million.



“If you’re thinking about the runway from that perspective,” Grider said, “I think that the whole space has a long way to go.”



Watch the full interview below and watch all of the panel videos from DAS <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/digital-asset-summit-2021-2/#videoslider0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="DAS New York 2021: Grayscale&#039;s David Grider Discusses How Crypto will Penetrate Gaming and VR" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zgDJX1g6q6I?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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