Highlights:

• Another week of falls in land caps across the Metaverse, as Decentraland takes another hit
• MMORPG Outlanders launches its players marketplace
• Everdome & BSC News team up to deliver crypto news direct from the Metaverse
• Somnium Space founder launches Web3 & censor-free social media platform
• Decentraland Art Week to kick off Aug 24 &
• The Sandbox kicks off its Alpha Season 3

1. Market Data & Analysis

OneLand 7-day data shows aggregate land cap of the 7 metaverse projects down for a record 12th consecutive week (-2.88%), with trading volumes back up (16.94%) for a second consecutive week (+16.94%) and holders overall steady (-0.11%).

The increase in aggregate trading volume results mainly from Otherside’s top sale of 183 ETH, though The Sandbox’s volume was also up for the week, while the 5 other projects were down. Meanwhile, land caps for all projects with the exception of Somnium Space were in negative territory, notably Decentraland whose suffering finds little solace in what is fast becoming for it not just a crypto, but metaverse, winter, its temporary uptick of last week being quickly checked.

Numbers of sales in The Sandbox were up week-on-week (+44%) but this lent to the selling side — with a further slide in average price (-4.6%) and top sale of just 3.5 ETH, its land cap continued its downhill run for a 4th consecutive week, this time by 5.8%. Holders remained steady for the week (+0.01%) compared to the dips of previous weeks.

Appearances can be deceiving. The Sandbox marches ahead with its marketing push on celebrities entering the space and contests to win $SAND, nevertheless it will be more interesting to see if this coming week’s launch of Alpha Season 3 does anything to turn the tide of LAND sales, more precisely in prices of LAND. Big weekly dips in the price of $SAND (-20%) and $ETH (-18.5%) hardly invigorated prices to the upside this past week — a 4.57% dip in the ETH average price representing, in fact, a 9.16% decline in USD.

Decentraland

It was not a good week for Decentraland. Things seemed to be gradually leveling out on the charts for Decentraland over recent weeks, but this past week saw the metaverse’s overall land cap suffer a big hit, down 7.4%.

6.38 ETH for a top sale might look good side by side with The Sandbox, but firstly, this was an Estate, and secondly, it was its lowest price of a weekly top sale this year. A 1.22% increase in average price in a week when both native token $MANA and $ETH fell 20.5% and 18.5% respectively comes as a poor result on the economic front.

We will have to wait and see if this weekly result is merely the last tumble before a turnaround that sparks buyers into action, or if indeed there is more bad news to come. Decentralanders will be wishing the virtual world’s third edition of Art Week has at least some positive impact.

Voxels

Voxels’ recent pause on any new islands or parcel mints continues to quieten trading activity to a low hum. The mostly weekly drip-feed of new plots (this week saw another 5 parcels from Chronos Island released to the market) maintains the economy, yet has seen its land market cap fall week-on-week, for 5 weeks. While the average price of a parcel was up by 0.11 ETH (or 19%) on last week, trading volume (-29%) and sales (-40%) continued their slide ever since its brighter performance in the first week of August. Meanwhile, unique holders of land continued to rise, up from 2391 to 2400.

Somnium Space

On the branding front, it might have been a big week for founder Artur Sychov as he launched a new blockchain-based social media platform called Authencity, and its HQ in Somnium Space from where a party was held to celebrate the event. But it caused no reaction at all in terms of parcels sold in his metaverse, and indeed even provoked some derision from at least one follower on Twitter who believed his efforts should be dedicated elsewhere.

In total, a paltry 3 land parcels changed hands for the week, a big dip from last week’s total of 13, while a 3.5 sale was enough for a slight recovery in average price (+42%), though, in truth, this data comes as largely irrelevant. Overall, it was an extremely quiet week for Somnium Space on the VRE front, with holders down again for the week. The price of its token $CUBE also fell another 11.5% for the week, though fared better than other metaverse tokens $SAND and $MANA.

Worldwide Webb

Worldwide Webb experienced somewhat of a comedown from the last two weeks of announcements and new integrations to the metaverse, with all weekly metrics in the red. Trading volume fell almost 60%, putting downward pressure on the average price (-38%) and land market cap, down -1.78% for the week. Unique holders of Apartments were also down week-on-week from 4528 to 4512, reversing the previous week’s turnaround, perhaps as some new landowners flipped their Apartments based on ETH moving into its own negative territory for the first time since July.

Discussion at OneLand is guessing the team at NFT Worlds may be on holiday, following a second quiet week for the project and no news at all, let alone a deadline set, for their updated project. The average price is now down to 0.76 ETH or a little over USD 1200. At the same time, its lands cap slid another 5%, while sales (-21.7%) and trading volumes (-26.3%) dry up, with remaining World holders (down only marginally for the week) apparently, at least for the meantime, choosing to hold out for better days.

Otherside

A return to at least one premium sale on the books was enough to see some weekly turnaround in trading volume (+21.6%) and average price (+17%), and on the back of a falling ETH price. The bear market has near-annihilated the previous flurry of premium sales of Otherdeeds, with 183 ETH representing approximately 10 times that of both the week’s second-top sale (18 ETH) and last week’s top sale (19 ETH). In fact, the last transaction above 100 ETH occurred almost 6 weeks ago on July 13.

Trading volume and sales numbers were both up for the week, by 21.6% and 5.7% respectively, while Otherside’s market cap keeps falling, diving another 3.51% to 459,257 ETH, which is 34% lower than its peak of 696,464 ETH at the end of May. Meanwhile, the numbers of holders of Otherdeeds keep falling too, down from 35,096 to 35,004 for the week and 1.12% for the month.

For comprehensive market and metaverse project data, check oneland.world.

2. Market News

Somnium Space

• Aug 19

Somnium Space founder Artur Sychov announced the launch of blockchain-based and censorship-free social media platform Authencity followed by a launch party on Aug 21 from its HQ inside Somnium Space.

Animoca

• Aug 15

Animoca Brands and subsidiary Lympo partnered with Play Magnus Group to build Anichess, a P2E chess game on the blockchain. Set to launch in 2023, Anichess will merge the worlds of chess and GameFi to offer entertainment and e-learning.

Meta

• Aug 19

Meta launched its metaverse Horizon Worlds in France and Spain, posting an uninspiring screenshot that attracted ridicule from the Web3 world, especially given the monumental $10 billion spent on the project. The company says its app already has over 300k MAU.

Outlanders

• Aug 18

Blockchain-based MMORPG Outlanders launched its marketplace for players to buy and sell weapons earned by defeating monsters or competing in PvP battle mode. All trades must be conducted using the $LAND token.

Premint

• Aug 16

Web3 allow list platform Premint introduced improvements to fight against bots, auto-removing entries with re-used tokens or that fail to maintain the minimum balance of 0.5 ETH.

Phantom

• Aug 18

Phantom Wallet launched its Burn NFT feature across all devices. The new feature enables users to remove “spam” and “unwanted NFTs” with the chance to pick up SOL rewards in the process.

3. Sales & Mints

Voxels

• Aug 15

Voxels listed 5 Chronos parcels at 0.420 ETH on OpenSea.

Otherside <> The Sandbox

• Aug 15

Otherside and The Sandbox teamed up to launch a joint collection of 3,333 NFTs.

The Sandbox <> Hell Diggers

• Aug 19

Zero Games Studios released its 2nd NFT drop from the Hell Diggers game in The Sandbox Marketplace.

Fancy Bears

• Aug 17

Fancy Bears Metaverse kicked off its Honey Shots NFT collection mint and public sale in partnership with BinanceNFT.

My Neighborhood Alice

• Aug 16

My Neighbour Alice put several of its Lands up for auction on its their marketplace.

Upland

• Aug 16

Registration opened for Upland’s first European city, Porto, ahead of its launch on Aug 22. The metaverse also launched a contest to celebrate, with a chance to win VIP tickets to a FC Porto home game.‍

4. Events, Contests & Giveaways

Events

Decentraland

• Aug 14

DCL released news of Decentraland Art Week to take place Aug 24–28. Themed The World is Made of Code, the event’s 3rd edition will feature NFT art focused on the relationship between man and nature, and its impact on the evolution of the Metaverse.

• Aug 16

Fashionista Bershka and Steve Aoki held a HiROQUEST party live-streamed from superclub Amnesia (in Ibiza) in Decentraland to celebrate the launch of their new fashion range.

• Aug 20

The British Blockchain Association Metaverse was launched in Decentraland.

SXSW 2023

• Aug 16

Film, media & music festival group South by Southwest (SXSW) opened community voting on panels for its annual gathering in Austin. The proposals, which include those of Decentraland Foundation & Decentraland DAO, showcase innovations ranging from gaming and AI to edge computing.

Somnium Space

• Aug 16

Somnium Space launched a video showcasing the July batch of its 2022 Creator Fund Live Pitches. The pitches were delivered to a jury with representatives from Gemini, Polygon, MOCA and ISG.

Voxels

• Aug 17

Voxels issued an article instructing Voxelians how to trade $FOLK.

Contests

Decentraland

• Aug 15

DCL announced the launch of a bi-weekly series of 3D builders contests, Mix&Twist. Builders need to combine two unrelated objects into one with a real-life use case, for a chance to win from a total prize pool of 5,000 $USDC.

The Sandbox <> Raini.io

• Aug 16

DeFi and gaming universe Rainiverse kicked off a new VoxEdit contest in The Sandbox ahead of the launch of its new trading cards game The Lords of Light. 15,000 SAND and special prizes will be split among the top entrants.

• Aug 17

The Creator Fund NFT July Showcase went live in The Sandbox Marketplace.

Catch up on this week’s #Twitter Spaces, project streams and interviews:

Voxels: Get refreshed at the Voxels feat. Bitpixi

NFT Worlds: Weekly WRLD feat. NFT Worlds

The Sandbox: The Future of Web 3.0 Metaverse feat. Phantom Galaxies

Somnium Space: The Somnium Show LIVE PARCEL #3009

Somnium Space：Interview from the Metaverse feat. @ASychov

Somnium Space: Somnium Time Podcast.

Decentraland: Metaverse Sustainability feat. MetaGameHub DAO.

The Sandbox: The Sandbox Saturday Stream

5. Project Updates

WorldwideWebb

• Aug 16

Worldwide Webb added POAP integrations into its metaverse. Attendees of the DeadFellaz 1st Anniversary Party would have spotted a POAP statue in Teshimi.

• Aug 19

Erika Lee published an article covering recent partnerships with Immutable and GameStop NFT, and the creative vision of Worldwide Webb.

Axie Infinity

• Aug 15

P2E game Axie Infinity launched Phase 3 of Season 0 with new economic updates and features, including the ability to mint new ERC-1155 tokens — Ronin Charms & Runes — as well as earn other utilities and sticker rewards.

The Sandbox

• Aug 17

The Sandbox announced that Alpha Season 3 kicks off on Aug 24. The new season includes 98 experiences and will be open to all players.

Voxels

• Aug 15–19

Voxels introduced new features in its Weekly Dev Roundup including new navigation buttons, UI updates to its events section, as well as new metrics and parcel volume stats. Meanwhile, Voxels announced a slowdown to Foxus that reflects a current focus on the parent platform.

6. Partnerships

The Sandbox <> Gordon Ramsay

• Aug 16

The Sandbox and ITV Studios teamed up to bring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s award-winning reality show Hell’s Kitchen into the Metaverse.

Everdome<>BSC News

• Aug 16

Metaverse Everdome announced a partnership with BSC News to deliver crypto news and updates straight from the metaverse. BSC News will set up shop in the Future of Finance district of Everdome.

Decentraland<>SHoP

• Aug 18

SHoP introduced drag-and-drop architecture for Decentraland with its Habitats generative NFTs. Each Habitat NFT comes with access to a suite of 3D-ready models. Tutorial below:

Decentraland<> GossApe Girl

• Aug 19

GossApe Girl, an NFT collection representing “inclusivity, equality and style”, partnered with Decentraland Foundation to write exclusive coverage for the upcoming Metaverse Art Week (Aug 24–28).

Worldwide Webb<>Meebits DAO

• Aug 20

Worldwide Webb announced the integration of Meebits DAO into the metaverse. All Meebits holders will get access to the Alpha from Aug 23.

Don’t forget — to access the most comprehensive, in-depth and up-to-date aggregated VRE market and project data, check out OneLand.

Twitter: @OneLand_World

Discord: OneLand