Breanna Robinson
Aug 09, 2022
Video
Mark Cuban, the billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner and crypto enthusiast, called the metaverse "the dumbest s*** ever" as digital land prices took a tumble.
This past weekend, Cuban spoke with Altcoin Daily, the crypto-based YouTube channel, about how he is not too sold on the metaverse.
"The worst part is that people are buying real estate in these places. That's just the dumbest s*** ever," he said in the video.
The billionaire's sentiments come as the increasing hype surrounding the digital universe seems to be fading away.
The metaverse loosely describes the emerging virtual world where people can shop, hang out with others and play.
In November 2021, Facebook changed its name to Meta, which sparked much excitement about the potential of the metaverse. It also propelled a land grab for digital plots in the so-called metaverse platforms created by Sandbox and Decentraland.
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The platforms permit investors to purchase land as an NFT, which can then be created with virtual buildings or experiences or resold on OpenSea.
Even companies like Adidas, Warner Music Group, and Samsung have bought digital land—a step that Cuban appears unlikely to follow based on his latest remarks.
He also isn't swayed by the vital claim of metaverse land speculators that scarcity will help make the digital plots of value.
Although Cuban is an investor in Yuga Labs, the company that owns the popular NFT collections Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, he said he was not fond of the digital land sales.
In April, it raised roughly $317m for its metaverse platform Otherside, Fortune reported.
"I still thought it was dumb to do the real estate. That was great money for them, you know, but that wasn't based off a utility," Cuban said.
“The worst part is that people are buying real estate in these places. That’s just the dumbest s*** ever." Getty
Metaverse sales have been on a decline since November 2021. Reaching a peak on November 21, 2021, the volume of land sales across some of the biggest metaverse platforms like the Sandbox and Voxels, to name a couple, was more than $60m.
According to WeMeta, since August 6, the volume of sales between the top five metaverse platforms was a little over $150,000.
Also, the average sale price for a plot of digital land has decreased 81 per cent to $5,930 as of last week.
That price was $32,191 on November 21, 2021, as noted on WeMeta.
However, Cuban said that as of right now, the definition of the metaverse is unclear, and it remains up in the air as to whether or not the technology will be fruitful.
"There'll be a lot of different applications…But right now, it's more talk than anything," he said.
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