Metaverse trading volume plummeted 80% but hype hasn’t decreased

Third-quarter trading volume for the top 10 metaverse projects may have fallen 80% compared to the second quarter, but analytics firm DappRadar suggests that interest in virtual worlds still remains.

The metaverse sector has been hit with a fair amount of negative press as of late, particularly around suggested low user activity across certain platforms, such as Decentraland and Meta — reports which they have refuted.

DappRadar noted in an Oct. 20 report that while trading volumes have taken a sharp hit during Q3, the average number of NFT sales for these 10 projects only decreased by 11.55% compared to Q2.

DappRadar explains that lower trading volumes could merely reflect decreasing asset prices and not necessarily lack of interest, noting that:

“We consider this a bullish sign because it shows that the hype for these types of projects hasn’t decreased. Instead, the fall of cryptocurrency prices has affected the projects’ overall trading volume instead of a lack of interest.”

A caveat to these sentiments, however, is that eight of the top 10 metaverse projects saw significant decreases in their nonfungible token (NFT) sales counts during Q3, with Yuga Labs’ Otherside seeing a 74% decrease for the quarter.

The positive action was primarily driven by The Sandbox and former Minecraft-based platform NFT Worlds V2, which saw NFT sale count increases of 190% and 79% apiece.

DappRadar attributed this to the hype surrounding The Sandbox’s Alpha Season 3, which offers a host of new gaming experiences and collectibles. While NFT Worlds V2 being booted off of Minecraft may have been seen as a “buying opportunity” as the value of its NFTs dropped by 90% in Q3.

Virtual lands floor prices plummet

Meanwhile, DappRadar’s report indicated that the floor prices for NFT land plots had decreased by 75% on average, which may have been one of the reasons why trading volumes had decreased by so much.

While the value of any piece of real estate, virtual or otherwise, is subject to swings, “Metaverse real estate is currently very depreciated,” DappRadar stated, adding that the declining prices are in accordance with the broader bear market of the crypto sector.

DappRadar was forced to defend its metaverse data last week, which had been interpreted to mean that platforms such as Decentraland had less than 40 daily active users.

The firm alsnoted that its user data tool only tracks users’ interaction with a blockchain, usually in the case of transactions, and did not count “non-blockchain-based activities” such as non-spending users.

The Sandbox tweeted on Oct. 10 that it had hit 39,000 daily active users, and 201,000 monthly active users over the previous 30 days.

Decentraland also reported having 8,000 daily active users and 56,697 monthly active users as of Oct. 8.