Mark Cuban is a prominent investor in the cryptocurrency industry. He is a huge supporter of Ethereum, which allows the creation of decentralized applications. However, as a savvy investor, Cuban still has some restrains in some of crypto's products.
The native token of Ethereum, Ether, is currently the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value. It is expected to go up in the coming months due to a major change that will allow users to perform transactions on the platform at an affordable price. Despite his support for cryptocurrencies, Cuban remains one of the most critical voices in the industry. He sees that the current state of the cryptocurrency industry is not sustainable.
The popularity of the metaverse has led to various projects and trends. One of these is the purchase of virtual land. In virtual real estate, each piece of code is represented in an interactive web experience. These pieces of code can be used to create individual plots within the metaverse, and they can be purchased using NFTs on the blockchain.
According to MetaMetric Solutions, the total virtual land sales in 2021 reached $501 million. In January, the sales reached $85 million, and it is expected to reach $1 billion by the end of 2022. Some of the prominent companies that have been involved in this market include Decentraland, Somnium, and Sandbox.
Despite the various positive aspects of the virtual land market, Cuban has launched a violent attack against land transactions in the metaverse.
During an interview with Altcoin Daily, Cuban criticized how people deal with real estate in the metaverse. He referred to the transactions as the "dumbest s--- ever."
"The worst part is people are hooked on real estate in this place [metaverse]," Cuban said. "That's just the dumbest s--- ever. The dumbest, dumbest. Did I say it was dumb. No, that's not strong enough. Super meta immaculately dumb."
He went on to say that the virtual world is different from the real world regarding the scarcity of land. For Cuban, the value of real estate is significantly higher due to the scarcity. However, in the virtual world, the scarcity of land is not present.
"After you create a community, not before, but after you create a community, then you can find places depending on how that community works. That can have perceived value because of access or whatever, right? But beforehand, based off of a traditional real estate model, dumbest mother s--- ever," Cuban said.
Virtual real estate bubble
Cuban is aware of the current state of the virtual land market due to his recent investment in Yuga Labs, a company that owns the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. BAYC is also a part of the metaverse's real estate market.
In November, Republic Realm, a real estate advisory firm, and metaverse investor announced that it had purchased the largest land deal in the Sandbox in a deal worth over $4 million. The company is currently developing a series of islands called Fantasy Islands.
A plot next to rapper Snoop Dog's digital mansion was purchased by an NFT collector in 2021 for $450,000. However, in recent months, the virtual real estate market in the metaverse has started to cool down due to the crash of cryptocurrency prices.
According to WeMeta, the average price of virtual property in central Decentraland is currently at $14,385.27. It is 60% lower than the average price of over $37,000 reached in November 2021.