The prospects for the metaverse's market potential are superlative and vary widely. Bloomberg, for example, estimates that the movement around the concept will reach US$ 800 billion in 2024, with the games segment expected to account for half of this amount. Assets under management by metaverse ETFs could reach BRL 80 billion in the same period, according to the agency.
Citigroup, in turn, estimates that the metaverse economy could grow to between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030, with 5 billion users, assuming massive investments in technology and infrastructure by then.
Despite the outlook, retail funds backed by metaverse-linked cryptocurrencies are not common these days, as many countries do not allow such products, given the deregulation of the market. In the United States, for example, where several of the companies that drive the advancement of the concept are concentrated, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commision), equivalent to the American CVM, still does not authorize ETFs that invest directly in cryptoassets. There, metaverse-themed ETFs are equity funds.
One of the best known, Roundhill Ball Metaverse, for example, brings together papers from companies such as Roblox, Nvidia (of video cards), Meta, Unity Software, Microsoft, Snap, Sea, Amazon, Apple and Autodesk. Several such funds have been created since last year.
In South Korea, according to information from CNBC, eight ETFs linked to the metaverse were launched by the beginning of 2022 and attracted more than US$ 1 billion. They are equity funds of technology companies, chip makers and entertainment companies. The country was the first in Asia to create such funds.
In Europe, the first metaverse ETF was launched in March 2022 in London. The ETC Group Global Metaverse UCITS ETF also follows a stock index. According to Bloomberg, global investments in metaverse ETFs reached $2.2 billion at the end of December 2021.
Brazil is an exception because, in 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) authorized the availability to retail of ETFs exposed directly to crypto-assets. “It was the big news of 2021, something groundbreaking,” noted Felix. “Brazil is ahead of regulators around the world,” Mançanares pointed out.
Although the country is not at the cutting edge of technological development, the professor of Law, Finance and Technology at Ibmec, Isac Costa, says that the “understanding of the CVM” has given Brazil “a bolder market” in the area.
The decision made room not only for investments in the metaverse, but for cryptocurrency ETFs in general, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, and decentralized finance, such as those of the asset manager Hashdex. HASH11, for example, has mostly Bitcoin and Ethereum, and a small portion of gamecoins Axie Infinity and The Sandbox.
“Brazil has so far proved to be a very receptive country to investment funds in crypto-assets in general, especially ETFs”, commented Costa.