After a 20.3% rise in the last 24 hours, 314.7% in a month, and 4336.6% in a year, it is undeniable that Decentraland (MANA) is in a bull-run with a high probability of prolonging. An extension of the NFT craze, this platform applies a similar approach, but to digital real estate.
Based on the Ethereum blockchain, Decentraland allows users to buy, trade, and build apps or digital parcels. Thereby, they acquire ownership of a digital space under the non-fungible ERC-721 standard, purchased with MANA, a token that uses the ERC-20 standard.
Prices per parcel in Decentraland have shown massive growth over the last year. Accelerated by the confluence of two factors – confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the adoption of new generations – a virtual piece of land on the platform has tripled in price in less than 12 months.
To leverage the expansion in this sector, real estate firm Republic Real Estate will launch the “Realm” fund to convert plots on Decentraland and similar platforms into hotels, advertising spaces, and more. The head of this firm, Janine Yorio, compared current Decentraland investors to landowners in 18th century Manhattan. Yorio said:
There is massive growth ahead, and now is the time to get in on the ground floor (…). Real-world real estate is very uncertain now. Housing prices are at an all-time high. Meanwhile, offices are empty, hotels are empty. This feels insulated from a lot of those real-world risks.
How to make money with Decentraland?
On the various possibilities for investors to profit from these digital properties, Yorio explained in an interview that Decentraland could be part of a future billion-dollar industry. The Republic director added:
Companies are starting to advertise to them (users) where they are. Virtual Real estate is the way for those companies to buy the land, the pixels, the parcels, inside those games. Put ads up, put stores up, put communities inside there where they can market directly to customer.
In short, investors can profit by taking advantage of the increase in prices due to the demand for these digital properties, renting the parcels, or selling advertising space. Yorio added:
Land in Decentraland was selling for about 500 dollars a parcel in 2019, today those same parcels are trading for about 7,800 dollars. So, strictly from a capital appreciation standpoint we see a more than 10x return in under two years (…). There is really no end to the things you can do.
At the time of writing, MANA is trading at $1,06. In the 24-hour chart, the token is showing important gains with 20.6%, as mentioned above. MANA reached an inflection point when it reclaimed the $1,00 area, right after investment firm Grayscale launch their Trust based on this token.
