Highlights:

• The Sandbox withstands, Somnium Space soars, and NFT Worlds corrects
• Web3 powerhouses join forces in Open Metaverse Alliance. Is this a giant step towards interoperability?
• Wharton School launches 1st Ivy League business course on the Metaverse
• Big project updates out of Decentraland, NFT Worlds and Somnium Space &
• Somnium Space teleports digital VR Avatar live from a virtual to physical world!

1. Market Data & Analysis

OneLand data shows a bearish picture of 7-day aggregate land caps for the 7 metaverses, down by 3.11%, with trading volumes falling 47.21% and holders down by 0.2%.

As this week marked the end of July, it is interesting to see both The Sandbox and Somnium Space, two of the three most established virtual worlds, enjoying respective 22.81% and 25.28% jumps in monthly average price, perhaps resulting from overall positive signals from the crypto market. BTC soared within 24 hours of the Federal Reserve raising rates by 75bp Wednesday, while ETH was up 8% for the week on the back of announcing a September 19 release date for ‘The Merge’ from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake.

Given VRE prices are deployed in ETH, established holder communities in metaverses such as The Sandbox and Somnium Space may have benefitted from its upward movement. While Somnium Space was the only project seeing an upward move in weekly market cap (+4.17%) and The Sandbox dipped 0.98%, Decentraland and NFT Worlds continued their downward trends, both suffering further (7+%) drops in land cap.

As the negative impact of Minecraft’s official ban last week on blockchain and NFTs lingered into the new week, NFT Worlds recorded slight market corrections coinciding with last week’s announcement of a “new game & platform” and that of a new tokenomics model on July 30. This did not hurt the native token’s price, the price of $WRLD recovering almost 20%. The correction also included collective sales of 67 from Monday to Tuesday, only below that of Otherside, and a fortuitous 84.5% drop in its 7-day number of sales following the disastrous +2631% surge of last week.

Sales in The Sandbox continued to climb through the week, reaching a peak of 53 on Saturday, while holders declined from 19,778 to 19,690. The Sandbox, overall, witnessed a 6.04% weekly fall in sales, while its average price declined 5.43%. Worldwide Webb, another metaverse with bearish land sales and price movements last week, witnessed a 4.08% recovery in its average price, despite a 30% drop in weekly sales.

Brightest, however, was Somnium Space’s overall positive weekly performance, recording a 17.71% jump in average price, reflecting the monthly trend. Sales for the week kicked off about the same time founder and CEO Artur Sychov showcased the world’s first digital VR avatar to teleport live from a virtual world to physical one. This shifted how we understand digital human beings and social interactions with them, according to Artur’s tweet. The number of Somnium Space holders also rose, while the VR-specialist was the only metaverse to enjoy an increase in land cap, up 4.17%.

Zooming into OG metaverses Decentraland and The Sandbox, land prices converged this week. The Sandbox also flipped Decentraland this month in land market cap, following an incredible YoY rise of 380%. While Decentraland continues to suffer the bear market, despite a pleasant 68.75% recovery in sales this week, the powerful marketing power of The Sandbox and Otherside is clear for all to see.

It is also intriguing to point out the divergence between Decentraland and The Sandbox in number of lands concentrated in the top 1% of holders. It indicates an active repurchase of lands from the hands of smaller retail investors by whales taking advantage of the general risk-averse sentiment in the market, and a driver behind The Sandbox’s increase in average land price.

Meanwhile, Voxels continued to slide following news last week of layoffs and a slowdown in development, both weekly sales and average price falling by 45.16 and 41.38% respectively.

Top Sales by metaverse (7D):

Otherside Otherdeed #79975: 28 ETH (7.28)

The Sandbox #41817: 4.9 ETH (7.29)

Somnium Space #2721 XL LAND: 3.5 ETH (7.28)

Decentraland LAND: 5432 MANA / 3.18 ETH (7.26)

NFT World #1832: 3.00 ETH (7.26)

Voxels #7185: 1.51 WETH (7.27)

Worldwide Webb #8921: 1.18 ETH (7.30)

Metaverse Tokens

#SAND $1.308 -2.82%

#MANA $0.977 +1.35%

#CUBE $1.538 -1.35%

#WRLD $0.0164 +19.7%

#ETH $1,688.98 +8.2%

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

2. Market News

Open Metaverse Alliance (OMA3)

• July 25

Web3 brands including Animoca Brands, Decentraland and The Sandbox joined forces to create the Open Metaverse Alliance (OMA) in a giant step towards interoperability between virtual worlds. It comes just a month after dozens of global firms led by the likes of Meta, Microsoft and Alibaba launched the Metaverse Standards Forum.

reNFT

• July 27

NFT renting protocol reNFT has raised $5 million in an investment round led by Mechanism and gumi Cryoptos Capital (gCC).

Somnium Space

• July 27

Founder Artur Sychov showcased the world’s first digital VR avatar teleported live from the metaverse to a physical location.

The Sandbox

• July 25

Steve Aoki’s 3,333 Aoki avatars have been listed and can be minted for 100 $SAND each in The Sandbox.

• July 29

Multiversity, an education-themed sci-fi game being developed exclusively for The Sandbox, dropped its first NFT pack on July 29 in The Sandbox Marketplace.

Voxels

• July 26

Voxels listed 10 parcels from Chronos and Obscurity at 0.6 ETH in a 24-hour firesale.

Wharton School

• July 26

University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School launched its Business in the Metaverse Economy course featuring guest speakers from Animoca Brands. The program is the first Ivy League business course focused on the metaverse.

Tribute Brand

• July 26

Digital fashion brand Tribute Brand raised $4.5M to develop digital couture for the Metaverse.

MTV

• July 27

The MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) announced a new category — Best Metaverse Performance. The nominees for 2022 include BLACKPINK, Ariana Grande, BTS, 21 Pilots, Charli XCX and Justin Bieber.

3. Events

Decentraland

• July 25

Cuervo held the Cuervo Metadistillery event in Decentraland, featuring a wide range of tequila-themed revelry for thirsty folks in the metaverse.

• July 28

CBS entered Decentraland with its hit sitcom ‘Ghosts’. The Ghosts Metaverse experience takes fans on an immersive journey through the famed Woodstone mansion to solve puzzles, undertake quests and earn limited-edition collectible NFTs.

• July 30

The MetaTrekkers NFT and Decentral Games teams hosted the first Venice Music & Fast Friends concert on the blockchain. Venice Music artists Sophia Alexa, Sarah Barrios, Dylan Davidson and Grent Perez headlined the event at the MetaTrekkers Club in Decentraland.

Voxels

• July 27

The ComedyVerse held a party for comedian, and owner of the first metaverse comedy club, Mike Salvi. All attendees received an OG pass, with eligibility for wearable NFT drops, presale WL and member-only shows.

• July 28

Low Sleazy held a music, art, spoken word and fashion show of Metaverse wearables in Voxels.

Listen again to this week’s #Twitter Spaces:

Decentraland: Women of the World Pt 2, featuring @Infinite Objects

Voxels: Architect Spotlight, feature @4Kurious.

NFT Worlds: Weekly WRLD

The Sandbox: AMA with Talewind Games

regular weekly events:

Somnium Space: Weekly VR Builder session

4. Contests & Giveaways

Decentraland

• July 29

WildernessP2E kicked off the Wildditch World Cup in Decentraland with prizes in $WLDY and wearables:

1st Prize: 30,000 $WLDY + Legendary Wearable

2nd Prize: 20,000 $WLDY + Epic Wearable

3rd Prize: 10,000 $WLDY + Epic Wearable

• July 29

RLTY held a giveaway on Twitter.

People could win the 3 days admission tickets usable for the events.

The Sandbox

• July 30

VoxoDeus held their Game Jam awards ceremony in The Sandbox.

5. Project Updates

Somnium Space

• July 26

Somnium Space released the new Oculus Quest standalone client and issued an article in Somnium TImes on how to use the Oculus Quest Standalone App.

Decentraland

• July 28

Decentraland announced it is developing a new SDK to bring it closer to their ideal vision of being a fully open protocol accesible to anyone.

NFT Worlds

• July 30

NFT Worlds announced tokenomics changes to its $WRLD ecosystem in a new presentation.

6. Partnerships

The Sandbox <> DJ Alec Monopoly

• July 25

The Sandbox teamed up with internationally renowned graffiti artist and DJ Alec Monopoly to create an exclusive virtual home for Alec’s real life and NFT art in the metaverse.

The Sandbox <> Gravity

• July 27

The Sandbox partnered with global gaming company Gravity to build Ragnarok LAND and introduce NFTs using Ragnarok IP. Users can also participate in the upcoming Game Jam themed on the Ragnarok universe.

MetaViu <> Lulu Land

• July 26

Metaverse advertising marketplace MetaViu partnered with LuLu Land to enter The Sandbox ahead of its first drop of 3D NFT billboards next week. Lulu Land provides construction services of metaverse experiences for landowners and brands.

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_World