Veteran banking giant, HSBC, is the latest corporate bank entity to enter the metaverse. It is doing so by partnering with one of the top metaverse projects by market capitalization, The Sandbox.
According to a blog post published by The Sandbox on Wednesday, the publication touts that HSBC is the first global financial services provider to enter The Sandbox metaverse. This follows after JPMorgan, who got a stake in the new virtual reality industry by partnering with Decentraland.
The post reveals that the British bank has acquired a plot of digital LAND, which is virtual real estate in The Sandbox metaverse virtual world which is intended to be developed to entertain sports, e-sports, and gaming enthusiasts.
What you should know
- The Sandbox is a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, the Hong Kong gaming company. The firm recently raised $93 million in a round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in November last year. Alongside HSBC, companies such as Gucci, Warner Music Group and Ubisoft have flocked to The Sandbox’s metaverse.
- Its co-founder and COO Sebastien Borget said the interest of companies like HSBC in the metaverse signals “the beginning of a broader adoption of web3 and the metaverse by institutions driving brand experiences and engagement within this new ecosystem.”
- The announcement explains that the agreement opens the door for other global institutions to continue innovating in Web3 as consumer adoption demands more robust experiences in the metaverse through decentralized and gamified offerings.
- There were not a lot of details about the partnership however, HSBC’s Suresh Balaji, chief marketing officer for the Asia-Pacific region, explained in the statement that the metaverse “is how people will experience web3, the next generation of the internet.”
- He further stated, “At HSBC, we see great potential to create new experiences through emerging platforms, opening up a world of opportunity for our current and future customers and for the communities we serve.”
As we see many traditional organizations incorporating cryptocurrencies, NFTs and now the Metaverse, into their business models, we now see that the entire cryptocurrency space is here to stay. According to PwC, the Metaverse virtual worlds can deliver interactive and immersive experiences to users, with many of these platforms built on blockchain technology. The big four gave a bold prediction as it estimates that the global metaverse market will grow from $45.4 billion in 2019 to a staggering $1.5 trillion in 2030.
