Decentraland, a metaverse platform built on the Ethereum network that allows users to create, engage with and monetize digital content through a variety of interactive experiences, has seen its native token, MANA, rally over 50% in the last 2 weeks.
MANA, in the last two weeks, has rallied approximately 54.68% from $2.03 to currently trade $3.14 as of the time of this writing. However, the token is down 6.53% Year-to-Date (YtD), due to the cryptocurrency market’s rocky start to the year 2022, which saw its market capitalization lose approximately 20% in the month of January.
The bullish rally in Decentraland’s native token also comes when Meta, formerly Facebook, share price declined by over 25% in a day due to poor earnings report, particularly from the company’s metaverse focused division, Facebook Reality Labs (FRL)
Reasons for the rally
- Decentraland released its 2022 Manifesto, announcing a prototype mobile app, improvements to its play experience, greater utility of nonfungible tokens (NFT) and protocol enhancements. It reads, “A mobile app is in early prototyping stages so you can keep in touch with metaverse friends from your mobile devices. Everything that’s happening in-world, right at your fingertips!” Although the manifesto does not give a timeline as to when this is expected, however, it has gotten its token holders really excited and invested in the project.
- Another reason for the rally is the interest and involvement seen by celebrities and influencers, towards the platform, who are looking to establish their brands in the metaverse. For example, popular rapper and actor, ‘Ice Cube’, did a tour of Decentraland’s metaverse on the first of February. As well-known artists and creators build out their presence in the virtual world, their fan base are automatically increasingly exposed to the possibilities of blockchain technology and metaverse, which has the potential to usher in a new wave of adoption.
- Another factor helping to attract users to Decentraland are the improvements to the users’ experience and an increasing number of cross-platform integrations. For example, the protocol has also added a “My Store” section that allows all users to manage and track their collection and build their personal brand.
According to the most recent update from the developers behind the project, some of the future updates for 2022 include the release of a desktop client, social and voice chat improvements, linked NFTs as wearables, tokenized emotes, smart wearables and as previously mentioned, mobile app prototype VR client.
The Decentraland metaverse and its NFT marketplace continues the grow. Just two days ago, a land was sold for 510,000 MANA, which at the time fetched $1.32 million. This is the second largest sale according to DappRadar. In the last 30 days, the platform has seen 1,297 users that have done 3,655 transactions in the same period.