After spending a considerable portion of 2022 in the doldrums, a number of tokens in the metaverse sector have seen considerable gains over the last several weeks, with 18 of the top 20 tokens in the sector seeing gains of up +319%, over the last 30 days.

Magic and High Street, two metaverse tokens, are both up north of 300% in the last month. The metaverse token market sector is characterized by tokens related to virtual worlds and decentralized platforms built on blockchain technology, such as Decentraland and Sandbox.

The total of 92 tokens on Cryptoslate’s metaverse sector index have an overall market cap of $9.51 billion. These tokens are used as currency within virtual environments, used as a way to onboard and use specific services, or to purchase content on these platforms, known in the industry as play-to-earn (think Axie Infinity).

The rise in their popularity recently may be due to several factors. A big one is the multi-billion dollar push from many in Big Tech to see the industry through a number of expensive VR and AR applications.

In January 2023, McKinsey reported that the Metaverse sector could reach a $5 trillion value by 2030, led by a significant push from companies like Alphabet (Google), Apple, and Meta (Facebook), which have all expressed interest in developing this market.