Metaverse tokens up 400% year on year despite altcoin bloodbath

Metaverse tokens are vastly outperforming every other crypto category in the current bearish condition, up by nearly 400% year-on-year.

Leading the gains are Decentraland (MANA) up 41%, Sandbox (SAND) up 470%, Axie Infinity (AXS) up 511%, and STEPN (GMT) up 746% according to data from the May 2022 market report by Kraken Intelligence and CoinGecko. Metaverse tokens can be used to pay fees, buy land, and participate in governance.

The #NFT boom of 2021 has not only drawn mainstream attention to digital art investments, it has also popularized the crypto metaverse.

Kraken Intelligence's report takes a closer look at how the crypto metaverse will change the way we communicate: https://t.co/kjrf6Pu8ygpic.twitter.com/YHpljpBJR9

— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) June 7, 2022

The next highest category for year-on-year gains were exchange tokens that saw a 6% increase. All other categories saw negative price action in the same time period ranging from -13% for Bitcoin to -72% for DeFi.

Blockchain-based gaming using nonfungible tokens (NFT) and Metaverse platforms has remained tremendously popular throughout 2022 so far. Despite slumping prices across the market, usership among those games has remained consistent at about 1 million users per day according to data from decentralized app (Dapp) tracker DappRadar. 

The Kraken report pointed out that although May saw flat daily usership, “NFT volume saw a large decrease with daily volume dropping -87.1%.”

Every category tracked by Kraken’s report, including Metaverse and exchange tokens, experienced negative returns over the past 30 days and 90 days. Metaverse tokens were among the worst losers over the past 30 days, dropping 42%, with by far the highest volatility at 173%.

Despite the short term price action, money is pouring in to fund the sector. DAppRadar’s Q1 games report noted that $2.5 billion was raised in support of blockchain games and Metaverse projects in the first quarter of 2022. Investors were eager to back games according to the report because 52% of all blockchain activity came from game DApps:

“At this pace, play-to-earn and Metaverse-related projects will add $10 billion this year to keep building the future of this industry.”

Related: Global Web3 metaverse and tax initiatives continue in the face of a market meltdown

Layer-1 tokens such as Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) led the losers as over the past 90 days, they are down 53% and down 43% over the past 30 days. 

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) saw relatively modest losses compared to altcoins over all three time frames measured by Kraken.