Autor Cointelegraph By Constantin Kogan

Metaverses and blue-chip nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are the driving forces behind the dramatic growth in the NFT market. Projects like the Bored Apes, Crypto Punks, Azuki, Clone X and Doodles collections have steadily attracted collectors’ interest in the past year. As a result, these NFT projects have helped the NFT market achieve a growth rate of over 20,000% and a sales volume of approximately $17 billion.For an industry that once occupied a tiny sliver of attention within the crypto/blockchain world, it’s clear that NFTs are here to stay despite earlier critiques of their ephemeral nature. However, given the recent lull in the NFT markets, investors and collectors alike are now seeking new frontiers where they can capitalize on the innovative application of NFT technology in different use cases.On the other hand, innovators have come up with creative new ways to apply NFTs in various industries. These new applications have increased the utility of NFTs, and I expect they will drive the next phase of NFT adoption.The NFT marketplace One particular sub-niche attracting increasing interest in the NFT world is Metaverse NFTs. A report published by NonFungible.com, which was created in conjunction with L’Atelier BNP Paribas, indicates that Metaverse NFTs make up approximately 3% of the global NFT market value, a staggering $513 million. As more companies build their brands within the Metaverse, the value of Metaverse NFTs will increase exponentially. Here are a few areas that will benefit from increased Metaverse NFT adoption.Related: ​​NFTs, Web3 and the metaverse are changing the way scientists conduct researchVirtual real estate: Margaret Mitchell once said, “Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything, for ‘Tis the only thing in this world that lasts, ‘Tis the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for — worth dying for.” Thanks to the blockchain, digital land can evoke the same emotion and utility as physical land. For example, PARSIQ, a blockchain company, has created a platform where landowners in the Metaverse can earn rental income from their digital assets. The protocol mimics the behavior of physical land by ensuring both the landowner and the renter’s obligations are negotiated, governed, and enforced by a series of smart contracts.Related: The Metaverse is booming, bringing revolution to real estateVirtual events: A few months ago, Snoop Dogg, the famous West Coast rapper, announced he would host an exclusive concert in The Sandbox’s metaverse. The event utilized NFTs to grant concertgoers access to premium experiences within and outside the metaverse. Subsequently, several brands began to explore how they could leverage advanced technologies to reimagine the boundaries of virtual worlds across multiple platforms. Companies believe that by creating events that incorporate music, art and fashion within a corporate or conference environment, they can offer their fans unique experiences that will keep them in their ecosystem longer and extend the lifetime value of their customers.Related: Concerts in the Metaverse could lead to a new wave of adoptionFinancial services: According to Trading Economics, the annual inflation rate in the United States rose to 8.5% in March 2022, representing the highest rate of inflation since 1981. With investors feeling the squeeze from all sides, there’s an increasing appetite for assets that can generate returns above the inflation rate. Protocols that offer decentralized finance services powered by NFTs within the Metaverse offer an avenue for investors to earn passive returns and other incentives. Staking and yield farming are already popular methods of earning passive yields in the DeFi space, but they are relatively new within the metaverse. However, as they gain widespread adoption, they offer tremendous opportunities for early supporters of metaverse projects to make life-changing incomes.It’s an exciting time to explore these emerging use cases while the market is in a lull. Once the market exuberance returns, the early adopter will have extracted the alpha and most likely move on to the next untapped frontier.This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.Constantin Kogan is a co-founder of BullPerks and GamesPad, partner at BitBull Capital, founder of Adwivo, and former managing director at Wave Financial as well as an entrepreneur, meta-connector, influencer, blockchain technology enthusiast and digital asset investor, and a top thought leader in hedge funds, IT startups, venture capital, healthcare, agriculture, real estate and media/entertainment. Constantin holds a Ph.D. in Sociology, an M.Ed. and is fluent in five languages.

The nonfungible token (NFT) market is hot right now, and the future forecasts that it will only be getting hotter. The creation of the Metaverse opens the gateway for NFT luxury brands to reach $56 billion by 2030. As the production of NFTs continues to create new forms of fashion consumption, more and more premium brands are jumping on this fast-moving train, investing in their new digital collectibles businesses. As more aspects of people’s lives are moving online, the demand for digital fashion and goods will increase significantly in the coming years.The Metaverse, virtual spaces where people can interact with each other and with digital objects through personalized avatars, is a groundbreaking concept currently being developed and built. Yet, it still has a long way to go. Still, within this short time frame, the spaces that are available to us now create opportunities for luxury brands to benefit from digital collectibles and the rise of so-called “social gaming.”The beginning of the internet, or Web 1.0, allowed people to connect to information. Web 2.0 was the iteration of social media and in essence, facilitated a new wave of people connecting with others. And now Web 3.0 stands to become a whole new virtual reality, better known as the Metaverse. Within this new digital world, people will search for more than information and connection with each other — they will experience a genuine virtual reality immersion.NFT and Metaverse as mega opportunities for premium brandsAs an immersive experience, the personal avatars that users utilize will wear clothing and use items as manifestations of individualization and personal expression, much like they would in the physical world — this opens up a really exciting opportunity for premium brands.Related: Why are major global brands experimenting with NFTs in the Metaverse?Experienced strategists have mentioned the global platform Roblox as an example. Within this gaming and creation system, one in five players will change their avatar every day, much in the same way a person gets up and gets dressed every morning. Other platforms, such as Fortnite, are already providing insights into what it might look like for the Metaverse to have malls, by establishing a “Retail Row” and later a “Mega Mall.”In May 2021, the Roblox platform hosted a virtual exhibition for luxury fashion brand Gucci from May 17–31. Players on Roblox could purchase digital models of real Gucci products for a small amount of in-game currency. Once the exhibition ran out of digital assets to sell, gamers began to put up the branded NFT items for auction, inflating their cost tenfold. One of the items, a virtual version of the highly desirable Dionysus handbag, sold at auction for $4,100, which is $700 higher than the retail price of the real-life version.Then, in September 2021, French premium brand Balenciaga launched a digital line of Fortnite fashion apparel, which could be purchased with in-game currency for approximately $8. Crypto-gaming experts predict that the social gaming segment of digital asset investments can add around $10–$20 million to the luxury goods market. September of 2021 saw another exciting venture for luxury NFTs, when world-renowned designer Karl Lagerfeld released a total of 777 NFTs on THE DEMATERIALIZED, a digital fashion marketplace, to be sold at 77 euros (around $87) each. With eager anticipation from players, Lagerfeld’s pieces sold out in a matter of seconds, igniting curiosity about a new pathway for the luxury goods market. Whether those sales were due to the hype of something new and innovative, or if people truly started seeing how powerful digital property can create opportunities — either way, the results of that successful launch exceeded expectations. As our physical world still maintains a capital on luxury fashion brands due to their dependence on the physicality of clothing to connect with their customers, the success of Karl Lagerfeld, Gucci and Balenciaga are only examples of what could be. Brands that are less accustomed to selling digital goods will have a different relation to NFTs and the transition of their industry, as so many of their qualities rely on physical materials. Related: Haute Couture goes NFT: Digitalization at the Paris Fashion WeekConsumers who are keeping a close eye on the evolution of NFTs and the transition into digital assets may be asking what all the fuss is about, why everyone is in such a rush to capitalize on this market, and how the fashion industry can find its place within this digital landscape. The Metaverse seeks to solve this problem and we are already seeing innovative ways on how this could all fall into place. FuturespectiveWhile luxury brands have made an initial splash, strategists believe that after the fulfilled emergence of the Metaverse, brands that fit into the ”soft luxury” category (which includes ready-made clothes, leather goods, footwear, etc.) will have the most fortunate and profitable position within the market. By contrast, the “hard luxury” sector, like premium watches and jewelry, could find it much more difficult to achieve that same level of success as they do in the physical world. The Metaverse can also help brands to expand their audiences. The current demographic of Roblox players consists predominantly of teenagers, while 70% of sales in the fashion industry are contributed by women. But within the Metaverse, luxury brands will have the opportunity to attract customers of a whole new age group that they would not usually connect with as consumers, further increasing the attractiveness of an even more immersive and embodied internet. Related: Culture converges with blockchain as luxury fashion brands launch NFT collectionsAs the Metaverse is based on a decentralized virtual space, many creative people will have lots of opportunities to succeed within these meta-universes, and luxury will most definitely find its home. However, the luxury brand representative must consider the possibility that they can be surpassed in their industry and craft with the creation of desirable goods and the arts in general. As the rules and economic landscape are yet to be full-formed in this exciting new digital frontier, and everyone has a unique opportunity to find success.Bottom lineClearly, the Metaverse is here to stay. While still developing and evolving, there are everyday parts of our lives that are already intertwined with the digital universe. Despite the fear of the unknown that a whole new world like that can conjure up, the real world has many dangers and uncertainties of its own to overcome, this new digital realm can open up opportunities that allow for many people to breathe a sigh of relief when they realize that the virtual world is not going anywhere and we are becoming more and more a part of it every day.This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.Constantin Kogan is a co-founder of BullPerks and GamesPad, partner at BitBull Capital, founder of Adwivo, and former managing director at Wave Financial as well as an entrepreneur, meta-connector, influencer, blockchain technology enthusiast and digital asset investor, and a top thought leader in hedge funds, IT startups, venture capital, healthcare, agriculture, real estate and media/entertainment. Constantin holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and an M.Ed. and is fluent in five languages.