The metaverse has captured the world‘s attention as major tech and gaming companies race to build expansive virtual worlds. And fueling these emerging digital landscapes is a new class of crypto assets – metaverse coins.
In this beginner‘s guide, I‘ll explain everything you need to know to get started with the top metaverse cryptos. You‘ll learn what gives these coins their value, the key players to watch, and how to evaluate new metaverse crypto projects. Let‘s dive in!
What Are Metaverse Coins?
Before jumping into the top coins, it helps to level-set on what exactly metaverse crypto coins are.
In simple terms, metaverse coins are cryptocurrencies that power virtual, blockchain-based worlds known as metaverses. Just like in the real world, you need money to participate in these digital environments.
For example, metaverse coins let users:
- Purchase digital assets – Such as land, avatars, clothing and other virtual goods
- Play games or access experiences – Like visiting virtual concerts or art galleries
- Speculate on the growth of metaverse platforms – As more users join these worlds over time
So in essence, metaverse coins unlock all types of activities across the expanding metaverse landscape.
Now let‘s explore the top metaverse crypto contenders that are leading the charge.
Ranking Methodology
With new metaverse coins launching rapidly, I focused on established projects for this list. To rank the top metaverse cryptos, I weighed factors like:
- Market capitalization – The total value of coins in circulation
- Trading volume – How actively the coins are traded
- Utility – The variety of uses cases for the crypto within its native metaverse
- Staking opportunities – For earning yield on idle coin balances
- Team and community – The talent behind the project and developer momentum
- Mainnet launch – When the native blockchain for the metaverse/coin went live
Using these criteria, here are 2023‘s leading metaverse cryptos that are worth tracking closely.
1. Decentraland (MANA)
Market Cap: $1.05 billion
Associated Metaverse: Decentraland
Launched in 2020, Decentraland is a pioneer in building a decentralized virtual world. Powered by the Ethereum blockchain, users can buy land parcels as NFTs, visit virtual stores and casinos, and create custom 3D scenes.
Decentraland’s MANA token allows users to participate in its virtual economy. You can use MANA to buy digital real estate and goods, pay other users for services, stake to earn rewards, and even participate in governance by voting on platform upgrades.
As one of the most established metaverse projects, Decentraland makes MANA a relatively safe long-term bet for early metaverse exposure.
2. The Sandbox (SAND)
Market Cap: $1.15 billion
Associated Metaverse: The Sandbox
The Sandbox features a virtual world fueled by the powers of NFTs and blockchain technology. And similar to Decentraland, it’s centered around a play-to-earn model that incentivizes users to get involved.
Users can build voxel ASSETs on the Sandbox’s unique map and monetize them. You can also buy land parcels as NFTs and rent advertising space to other users.
The SAND token facilitates all transactions in this user-generated content metaverse. Beyond payments, staking SAND allows users to participate in governance and earn a share of the platform’s revenues.
With over 300+ global partners across gaming, DeFi and musicians like Snoop Dogg, the Sandbox ecosystem continues rapid growth.
3. Axie Infinity (AXS)
Market Cap: $1.25 billion
Associated Metaverse: Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity soared in adoption in 2022 by letting players breed, battle and trade cute creatures called Axies. These Pokémon-like pets are NFTs you can buy, customize and sell.
The gameplay itself has true play-to-earn mechanics. Players earn crypto rewards for completing missions, fighting other Axie owners, or breeding rare Axies.
The AXS token represents governance rights in Axie Infinity. Holders can claim staking rewards and vote on key decisions for the ecosystem. However, the SLP token is used for Axie breeding/battling, making it the primary engine for the in-game economy.
As one of the first major play-to-earn NFT games, Axie Infinity continues attracting users through the bear market. It offers a blueprint for sustainable metaverse economies.
4. Enjin Coin (ENJ)
Market Cap: $420 million
Associated Metaverse: Enjin Multiverse
Enjin Coin takes a unique approach with its “multiverse” strategy. Instead of building a single metaverse, Enjin provides the technology for launching NFTs and blockchain games.
Over 300 gaming studios have used Enjin to create tokens and digital assets. And these Enjin-backed NFTs can integrate across different games and virtual worlds.
For example, you can take a weapon NFT from one game, import stats/attributes and use it in another Enjin-based game. This provides unprecedented digital asset liquidity compared to closed siloed worlds.
The ENJ token fuels transactions across this cohesive ecosystem. It brings true ownership and scarcity to in-game assets in the multiple worlds leveraging Enjin.
5. Theta Network (THETA)
Market Cap: $700 million
Associated Metaverse: THETA Metaverse
The Theta Network takes a niche approach to the metaverse, with a focus on virtual reality and video streaming. Users can explore new worlds together through shared VR experiences.
It addresses a major pain point of current metaverse iterations – low quality graphics and laggy experiences. Theta’s decentralized peer-to-peer network delivers smooth high resolution streams even for low powered devices.
Users can earn TFuel tokens by sharing bandwidth resources or running network nodes. You also use TFuel to donate to streamers, purchase NFTs, and access premium VR content.
While Theta is still early, its focus on solving metaverse infrastructure problems is promising. Expect innovations in delivering rich user-generated worlds powered by its video delivery protocol.
6. Highstreet (HIGH)
Market Cap: $51 million
Associated Metaverse: Highstreet
Highstreet bills itself as the “Shopify for Brands in the Metaverse”. The platform allows established retailers with no crypto or VR expertise to easily set up virtual stores.
Using Highstreet’s no-code tools, brands can design highly customizable spaces with product galleries, limited edition NFTs and integrated payment rails. Spaces are mapped to interactive VR environments that customers can visit via desktop, mobile or VR headsets.
The HIGH token aligns brands and platform partners through staking and governance. Stakers help curate storefronts and referendum proposals while earning a share of platform revenues.
Despite its smaller size, Highstreet solves concrete problems for onboarding brands into web3 spaces. With bluechip retail partnerships already signed, it warrants a spot on this list.
7. Spatial (SPATIAL)
Market Cap: $64 Million
Associated Metaverse: Spatial
While platforms like Decentraland focus on open world exploration, Spatial provides the building blocks for shared experiences. Developers can leverage Spatial‘s SDKs and APIs to easily create 3D collaborative spaces for live events, NFT galleries, VR meetings and more.
The Spatial ecosystem also includes a mobile app for Android/iOS. Users can hop between various rooms and worlds to shop digital goods, attend virtual parties with live DJs, or chat with friends and fans.
The SPATIAL token aligns the behaviors of Spatial‘s network participants – including creators, developers, operators and users. Staking SPATIAL gives holders governance rights to tune platform economics in Spatial‘s rapidly evolving metaverse.
8. Star Atlas (ATLAS)
Market Cap: $60 million
Associated Metaverse: Star Atlas
For space exploration fans, Star Atlas offers an immersive web3 gaming experience set in a massive virtual galaxy. Built on the Solana and Unreal Engine 5, expect jaw-dropping 3D visuals.
You can play as one of three factions battling for control across different planets. Gameplay includes resource gathering, crafting spaceships/weapons, and large scale faction vs faction combat. These battles will involve a combination of real-time actions and strategic turn-based gameplay.
The ATLAS token serves as the reserve currency within Star Atlas to buy ships/items and pay for mission capsules. Players also use ATLAS tokens for staking and governance over the Star Atlas DAO.
While Star Atlas is still deep in development, its triple A gaming polish paired with crypto incentives make it hugely promising. The team has already partnered with industry leaders like Multicoin, Solana and FTX.
9. Smooth Love Potion (SLP)
Market Cap: $283 million
Associated Metaverse: Axie Infinity
Earlier I mentioned SLP being crucial for Axie Infinity’s play-to-earn model. So despite not having its own metaverse, Smooth Love Potion warrants attention given Axie’s runaway success.
Here’s a quick refresher – players earn SLP tokens by playing Axie and completing in game tasks. But what gives SLP true utility is using them to breed new Axies.
Top tier SLP-fueled breeding requires significant SLP reserves – typically between 150 to 800 SLP per Axie birth. As more gamers aim to breed rare and legendary Axies for profits, demand for SLP naturally rises.
While inflated SLP tokenomics led to its price slumping in 2022, new play-to-earn incentives and breeding mechanisms will likely resuscitate SLP.
10. StarLink (STARL)
Market Cap: $115 million
Associated Metaverse: StarLink
Whereas other coins focus on virtual real estate and gaming, StarLink directly connects the metaverse to the physical world. The project mints NFTs backed by real world assets like sports memorabilia, artworks, collectibles and more.
Token holders can track, trade and leverage their tangible assets through metaverse interfaces. And they earn STARL token yields based on the real asset‘s value.
StarLink also allows brands and IP owners to bootstrap their own NFT drops through awhite label marketplace. This bridges the gap for traditional organizations to tap into metaverse revenue streams and customers.
Consider STARL a spin on digitizing assets like other fractionalized NFT platforms. But StarLink uniquely ties token utility and rewards to metaverse engagement.
11. Radio Caca (RACA)
Market Cap: $292 million
Associated Metaverse: The USM Metaverse
RadioCaca is one of the closest contenders to directly compete with Decentraland and Sandbox. The project focuses on building an expansive virtual USM world that bridges multiple platforms.
These include the Third Life metaverse for VR-based interactions. There’s also USM Land – a UGC environment for user-generated worlds akin to the Sandbox. And for gamers, there’s the in-development Mass Exile play-to-earn title.
Landowners can currently monetize parcels by building voxel structures. Soon these spaces will integrate with the in-game NFT economics planned in titles like Mass Exile.
As assets start flowing between USM‘s various realms, expect rich interoperability matching Enjin and Ready Player Me‘s multi-metaverse goals.
12. Floki Inu (FLOKI)
Market Cap: $134 million
Associated Metaverse: Valhalla
Meme coin turned metaverse crypto Floki Inu entered 2022 by launching Valhalla – a blockchain gaming metaverse built on Unreal Engine 5.
Its initial game is a match 3 puzzle title featuring Floki-themed characters and Valkyrie bosses. Players can earn NFT drops and FLOKI tokens through the play-to-earn mechanics.
Further gameplay releases will turn Valhalla into a hub for various play-to-earn titles under the Floki brand. We‘ll ultimately see web3 games spanning farming, arena battles, trading and more.
For holders purely chasing gains, FLOKI remains a solid speculative bet riding off the meme coin mania. With real gameplay now delivered and cultivated by a passionate community, the future looks bright for the iconic Shiba.
13. Paras
Market Cap: $31 million
Associated Metaverse: Paras
Paras takes a funky approach to metaversal identity – using animated characters called Parasites as your virtual persona. Each Parasite NFT comes with a unique combination of eccentric styles letting you stand out.
Beyond flexing your newfound identity, you can explore and participate in events across Paras. Hang with friends in lounges, design fashion items using Paras Workshops, bid on celebrity auctions or even buy merch from your favorite Parasites.
And as more games and apps integrate with Paras, expect significantly more utility. We‘ll soon see partnerships enabling things like using Parasites as playable characters with transferable attribute NFTs.
With over 10 million Parasite NFTs created already, Paras is a refreshing entrant leveraging digital identities and avatars.
14. Rally (RLY)
Market Cap: $50 million
Associated Metaverse: Creator Coins Metaverse
While other platforms focus on gaming and virtual worlds, Rally connects the metaverse directly to creators. Rally allows influencers and artists across YouTube, Twitter and Instagram to launch their own customizable Creator Coin cryptocurrencies.
Fans can purchase these social tokens to unlock exclusive content, engage directly with creators, and access members only spaces. Holders participate in economic movements uniquely tied to the creator‘s career trajectory.
Rally‘s own RLY token aligns network participants by allowing governance votes on business decisions and platform upgrades.
Given the rise of fan engagement web3 platforms, Rally remains well positioned to tap into new business models and revenue streams in the metaverse.
15. Yield Guild Games (YGG)
Market Cap: $273 million
Associated Metaverse: Multiple
Yield Guild Games adopts a unique strategy for participating in various metaverses – it operates like a digital investment fund looking for yield.
The DAO pools funds from investors to purchase yield generating NFT assets across games like Axie Infinity. These include land plots, rare Axies, in-game tokens and more.
The platform then lends out these assets to community members to play and earn token rewards. Profits get split between asset users and YGG stakeholders.
YGG token holders receive governance powers and a portion of revenues from staking and NFT lending.
This “play to earn as a service model” produces strong results as one of the largest guilds exploring early web3 gaming economies. The team continues seeking undervalued NFT gems across dozens of metaverses.
Should You Buy Metaverse Coins?
Hopefully this analysis gives you a better grasp on the diverse building blocks fueling metaverse growth. While gaming ecosystems like Axie Infinity and Star Atlas grab attention, keep an eye on unique value propositions like Paras, Theta and Highstreet.
Here are a few closing tips for beginners considering adding metaverse coins to their portfolio:
- Start small with a project or two you find compelling rather than spreading thin
- Maintain a long term mindset as fundamentals and adoption will take years to mature
- Consider playing metaverse games like Axie Infinity to better evaluate tokenomics
- Stick to established projects to minimize risks from possible "pump and dumps"
Despite crypto market volatility, adoption curves continue trending upwards across various metaverses. As interoperability bridges enter the fray, expect many of today’s leaders to thrive in tandem rather than winner takes all outcomes.
Stack modest allocations to top metaverse coins for diversified exposure to this emerging frontier!
