When Facebook rebranded itself as Meta and entered the metaverse sphere, it marked a major shift towards a metaverse-centric future.
Since then, popularity in the metaverse has steadily built to become an opportunity with incredible potential. With the advancement of Web3 the Internet landscape is changing dramatically and the metaverse is undoubtedly growing.
Expected to surpass 50 million users by 2025, with NFT transactions within the metaverse growing from 600 000 in 2022 to over 9 million in 2027, the metaverse has clearly become one of the best investment opportunities in the world, with a number of major metaverse crypto projects climbing the ranks.
Top Metaverse crypto projects in 2023
2023 promises to be a memorable year in the metaverse moving forward, with multiple projects, improvements and ideas taking shape in what will be the building blocks of the future of the Internet.
Some of the major metaverse crypto projects for 2023 and beyond include:
Decentraland (MANA) – Virtual Land Builder
The SandBox (SAND) – Virtual game world
Metacade (MCADE) – community-organized GameFi Hub.
Pavia (PAVIA) – Gaming world Builder
Ertha (ERTHA) – Gaming man meeting plot
Solice (SLC) – Virtual Reality Gaming System
Wizardia (WZRD) – Play2Earn role-playing game
Axie Infinity (AXS) – blockchain-based game based on NFT
The Metaverse Play to Earn projects share similarities in that they are all blockchain-based virtual worlds and all use tokens that their player base can buy or possibly earn as digital assets.
These digital assets have value based on the size, utility and popularity of the project, with the most popular ones having a higher value. Here we will discuss the differences between these projects and which ones have the best opportunities to gain the most value within the GameFi metaverse.
1. Decrentraland (MANA) – Virtual Land Builders Unite
Open to the public in 2020, Decentraland , if you can’t guess from the name, sells decentralized land within a shared virtual world. Users can explore, play games, interact with other users, and buy and sell digital real estate within the Decentraland universe.
Users must purchase the MANA token, which is used as in-game currency to buy parcels of land and other virtual goods and services.
As a customizable virtual space, Dencentraland’s main appeal is the ability for users to create their own customizable experience within their purchased land parcel.
This includes unique names and props for user avatars, which can also be traded between users or bought and sold with the MANA token. Decentraland has become one of metaverse’s top crypto projects since its inception, although daily user ratings have fallen sharply, causing some to question the value of their expensive land parcels.
2. The SandBox (SAND): virtual game world with virtual reality elements
The next top metaverse crypto project is Salvadera, a virtual game world built on the Ethereum blockchain where users can own, create, rule, play and win with their gaming skills.
As with Decentraland, The Sandbox users can purchase virtual land parcels with the platform’s token, SAND. They can then use one of three integrated products to create and animate 3D objects, upload and sell their creations in a virtual marketplace or create their own 3D games.
Like Metacade, The Sandbox has sought to put control of its games directly into the hands of its users, rather than the big production companies. The success of this transfer of power will be the basis for new metaverse spaces like Metacade, which can avoid the ups and downs that The Sandbox has gone through.
As many cryptocurrencies attempt to recover from the 2022 crypto crash, virtual gaming-related tokens like The Sandbox have pulled back considerably from their highs as users struggle to justify the prices The Sandbox and others had reached before the crash.
3. Metacade (MCADE): community-organized GameFi Hub
One of the top crypto metaverse projects to invest in right now is the virtual community hub, Metacade. Metacade, as the name suggests, will be a fully decentralized metaverse arcade, with a variety of Play to Earn games developed and chosen by its community.
Seeking to be a space where gamers can learn all about GameFi, chat in real time about the best games, write reviews and vote on which game developers receive grants to turn their ideas into reality, the platform is shaping up to take its place as the ultimate GameFi Destination in the metaverse.
Metacade is one of the newer metaverse crypto projects, but nonetheless appears to have real utility behind the platform’s concept. By focusing on destroying the barrier between gamers and developers, as well as publishing the results to its game library, Metacade is looking to dominate the future of the industry.
With its presale still in beta, and still in progress, we’re seeing a potential jackpot in the making as one of the best value opportunities to participate in right now.
Other metaverse crypto projects have already taken off, but if you want to get in on the first floor of the next big project to enter the metaverse, look no further than Metacade.
4. Pavia (PAVIA) – Next generation game world builder
Pavia is another virtual world builder, this one on the Cardano blockchain, which features a greener cryptocurrency than the likes of Ethereum. As with Decentraland and The Sandbox, users buy virtual land on which they can then build.
Users create unique avatars that can interact with other user avatars to buy and sell their virtual creations, or to rent their land for the PAVIA token.
Being relatively new to the metaverse, Pavia land parcels are cheaper than Decentraland or The Sandbox, and many aspects of the game are still under development.
Launched in January 2022, Pavia has not seen the value of its tokens drop as steeply as others, although they have still fallen from their peak of nearly $0.09 to around $0.01.
The timing of Pavia’s launch, just before the crypto crisis, demonstrates how new metaverse crypto projects like Metacade can be successful if started after the crisis.
While many tokens have lost up to 99% of their value due to the failure, those that start afterwards can take advantage of the atmosphere to continually increase their value.
5. Ertha (ERTHA) – Plot-based game world
Like virtual world builders Decentraland and The Sandbox, Ertha is a cryptographic metaverse project where users can build and create on their own virtual plot of land. However, unlike other world builders, Ertha has a plot to the game.
In it, humanity is on the brink of extinction after a climate apocalypse and users need to rebuild the world from scratch. This unique combination of virtual creation and plot is making Ertha one of the top cryptometaverse projects for 2023.
It shares similarities with other decentralized virtual platforms, such as its own currency token (ERTHA), the ability to explore, create, and buy and sell those creations for ERTHA tokens. The plot keeps the game more on track than those where there is no plot and the creation has no other reason to do so.
Unfortunately for Ertha, it also fell victim to bad timing, and launched just before the cryptocurrency collapse, which decimated the value of its token. It remains an example of how metaverse startups that are focused can be more successful than those that are not.
6. Solice (SLC): a blockchain-based virtual reality gaming system
Solice, which runs on the Solana blockchain, is the first cross-platform virtual reality metaverse gaming platform. As such, it offers users the unique opportunity to play to win within a complete virtual reality world. The point is not unlike other decentralized open-world world builders such as Decrentraland and The Sandbox.
You still buy land with your currency token (SLC), then build, play and socialize with other users, having the ability to buy and sell virtual goods. The difference is that this is all done in a virtual reality world.
The advantage is that you can get a more immersive feel inside this superior metaverse cryptographic project, exploring a completely virtual world in many ways that you would with the physical one.
The downside is that you’ll want a VR headset, that could price hundreds, if now not heaps of bucks. This makes Solice a unique, but expensive, adventure into the virtual metaverse.
7. Wizardia (WZRD) – Play to Earn RPG Magic & Fantasy
Wizardia is an RPG (role-playing game) where users collect NFT in a cryptographic metaverse plot-based metaverse project. The goal is to create your character, level it up and upgrade your equipment as you try to become the ultimate wizard.
The game offers not only a beautiful visual style, but fierce PvP and PvE battles in which users must use strategy and strength to climb the leaderboards of the best mages in the game.
As a plot-driven role-playing game, Wizardia offers a goal-based virtual world that can be more engaging than simple metaverse world-builders. Your currency token (WZRD), like others, can be used to buy, sell, and upgrade both your avatar and your equipment, allowing you to earn as you play.
Unfortunately, also like some others on this list, Wizardia tokens have lost a huge amount of value since the cryptocurrency crash and are not close to recovering as prices in the game adjust.
8. Axie Infinity (AXS): blockchain-driven game based on NFT
If you’re familiar with Pokémon, you probably understand another major metaverse project, Axie Infinity. A blockchain-powered online video game developed by Sky Studios, Axie Infinity combines the gameplay of Pokémon with the play-to-win ability of other metaverse games.
Using the AXS currency token, users buy and cash out ajolote-inspired creatures affectionately known as Axies. Players then build their Axies and fight against other users’ Axies. Players can also buy, sell or trade them with other users, with a transaction fee charged by the studio.
Axie Infinity combines the uniqueness of a creature-centric world with chance-earning gameplay, although the game’s extreme popularity has fallen drastically, as has the value of its tokens, since the 2022 crash.
Still, the remaining value of its tokens demonstrates how a focused, community-based metaverse crypto project can succeed in rebuilding a crypto universe from a blockchain.
