Decentraland (CCC:MANA-USD) has long been on the radar of cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Metaverse pundits have been aware of its importance to the greater movement to digitize our physical world and everything that comes with it.
A broad awareness of Decentraland’s potential in the digital space for businesses and creators has been brewing for some time. Anyone who queried “where will the Metaverse be built?” surely found Decentraland among their initial answers.
But it wasn’t until Facebook announced its rebrand to Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) that Decentraland gained a new level of clout.
Leveling Momentarily
Meta Platform’s late October news sent MANA prices quadrupling overnight. The 80 cent token was suddenly worth more than $3. MANA prices then spiked again in late November, reaching above $5 before sliding again back down to between $3 and $4.
That perhaps means MANA prices are in for a bit of a leveling off in which the $3 and $4 range acts as a new entry point. That’s mostly a guess and somewhat irrelevant anyway.
What is more important to understand is just what the opportunity is in Decentraland and why that could push MANA prices higher moving forward. So, at this point, it’s fair to at least note price predictions for MANA.
A small sampling of predictions ranges from $7 by 2023 and between $15 and $16 by 2028. This also includes a high of $93.66 by 2030. To be honest, nobody really has a great model for such predictions now. Crypto fundamental analysis is nowhere near as evolved as that which exists for stocks and other assets. Nevertheless, it’s good to at least get some sort of rough estimate rather than expect MANA to be as valuable as Ethereum (CCC:ETH-USD) or Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD) soon, or perhaps ever.
MANA’s Value
To be sure, MANA is an asset which investors can use passively to simply chase gains. There’s absolutely a bullish case for doing that. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to anticipate that capital invested into MANA could quickly double or more. And the longer term looks even brighter.
In my mind the value of MANA and Decentraland is most evident for active investors who are willing to bet on Decentraland and create in its Metaverse.
In other words, those content creators, businesses, and other individuals who develop its Metaverse stand to reap the greatest rewards. This is why it’s important for those truly interested in capitalizing in Decentraland to conceptualize building there.
Building in Decentraland
Decentraland’s Metaverse is a finite, fixed space of 90,601 parcels of digital real estate. Each of those parcels measures 16 meters by 16 meters, or 52.5 feet by 52.5 feet for non-metric system users. These parcels are individually referred to as LAND.
It’s clear that those entrepreneurial spirits with a creative flair for business in the digital world will capitalize on MANA and Decentraland. Any method by which people derive value from physical land in the real world will theoretically exist in the Metaverse. Sell the LAND, lease the LAND, advertise on the LAND, and simply put, commercialize the LAND.
That’s the broadest way to understand why Decentraland has many people excited. One of the images Decentraland conjures in my mind is that of ‘The Million Dollar Homepage’.
It isn’t beautiful, but it gets the point across. There is a lot of money to be made in the Metaverse. Outside of LAND development there’s plenty of opportunity to sell digital items. That is really a gross understatement. It’s wide open.
What to Do With Decentraland
The key takeaway here is that Decentraland poses a lot of opportunity for many from the passive investor to the active creator/investor.
Gauging the price of MANA is somewhat of a moot exercise. I think it will rise because it has an early dominant position. But I hope it’s abundantly clear where I think the biggest returns are bound to originate from in Decentraland.
On the date of publication, Alex Sirois did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
Alex Sirois is a freelance contributor to InvestorPlace whose personal stock investing style is focused on long-term, buy-and-hold, wealth-building stock picks. Having worked in several industries from e-commerce to translation to education and utilizing his MBA from George Washington University, he brings a diverse set of skills through which he filters his writing.