TL;DR Breakdown:
- JPMorgan has launched a lounge in Decentraland metaverse for Onyx
- The bank wants to provide a streamless payment infrastructure for businesses and users in the metaverse.
- It detailed the opportunities in the metaverse, saying the industry could generate $1 trillion in annual revenue.
Haven explored the potentials in the metaverse, leading US banking institution JPMorgan has launched on Decentraland to provide a flexible financial ecosystem that can allow people to seamlessly connect between the physical and virtual worlds.
JPMorgan “Onyx” lounge in metaverse
On Tuesday, the Wall Street lender announced its foray into the metaverse following the inception of its virtual lounge in Decentraland for Onyx, the bank’s blockchain-based platform for the exchange of value, information, and digital assets.
According to the people who visited the metaverse lounge, the bank had a digital roaming tiger, including an image of Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan.
JPMorgan is the first banking institution to join the metaverse train, and it plans to play a significant role in the virtual world by enabling a streamlined payment infrastructure, as it believes that the “success of building and scaling in the metaverse is dependent on having a robust and flexible financial ecosystem.”
Metaverse has $1t revenue potential
In addition to launching the Onyx lounge in the metaverse, the bank also released a research report to assist businesses and corporations in navigating and exploring some of the businesses-to-consumer and business-to-business opportunities positioned in the metaverse.
“We put together our white paper to help clients cut through the noise and highlight what the current reality is […]” JPMorgan’s head of crypto, Christine Moy, noted.
Big corporations are beginning to reposition and prepare for the metaverse, with Nike, McDonald’s, etc., being a typical example. Although the evolution of metaverse is still early, JPMorgan mentioned in the report that the potentials are limitless, with a market opportunity estimated at “over $1 trillion in yearly revenues.”
Opportunities in metaverse
In the report, the Wall Street bank said that there are opportunities in every market area in/related to the metaverse. It made references to virtual real estate, highlighting the growing demand for virtual lands, which has since doubled in price from $6,000 in June to $12,000 in December 2021 across the four leading metaverse platforms – Decentraland, The Sandbox, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium Space.
The bank also mentioned the potential rise of services that allow the use of digital goods or assets as collateral to underwrite virtual land and property mortgages. It added that such services could emanate from decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) rather than the conventional financial companies.
JPMorgan also emphasized work in the metaverse, adding that the gig workers can also make up the metaverse economy. However, there are still key areas of the metaverse that needs to be developed for businesses and consumers to harness the full potential in the virtual world, the bank said.
“Despite much excitement about the possibilities of the metaverse, in order to enable its full potential for engagement, community building, self-expression and commerce, key areas need to be further developed and matured.”
Companies in metaverse
The concept of metaverse has been widely discussed across several mainstream media outlets, especially since Facebook rebranded to “Meta” with over $10 billion investment and planned to develop its metaverse. It is safe to say many renowned companies are beginning to perceive metaverse as the next-big element that could change human interactions. Hence, some are repositioning and preparing to fit into the virtual world.
Nike, Walmart, Verizon, and others, have all shown interest to extends their presence in the virtual universe. More recently, Cryptopolitan reported that fast-food giant McDonald’s filed ten trademark applications with the US Patent and Trademark Office, covering plans to develop virtual food and beverage products, restaurants, concerts, and events.
