The Next Big Crypto You Didn’t See Coming

In a world full of Bitcoin and Ethereum, people can sometimes forget to look at the bigger picture and invest in something that’ll grow in the future. 

The truth is, investing in something long-term can be a lot more lucrative than daily trading. Imagine how much money people who invested in Bitcoin in — say — 2014 would have today if they just kept their investment. 

There are a lot of cryptocurrencies out there that have the potential of being the next “bitcoin.” Let’s take a look at just one of those cryptos — the MANA token from Decentraland. 

Without any further ado, here’s the next big crypto you didn’t see coming! 

Understanding Decentraland and the Metaverse

To understand why Decentraland is the next big thing, all you need to do is take a look at the Metaverse. 

The metaverse is being touted as the next major evolution of the internet. Sort of like how the web initially went from being static web pages to constantly updating streams of information and content. Now, the Metaverse can have a lot of different “forms,” but one of the most popular concepts of it is as a 3D virtual world. 

Even though a lot of different companies are trying to come up with their own concept of what the Metaverse is going to be like, one of the most popular and successful platforms that actually, you know, exist right now is Decentraland. 

Decentraland is sort of like a 3D game that lets you create your own character, meet other players, go to different locations, and so much more. On the surface, it’s similar to other social games like SecondLife or even Club Penguin, but this platform is much deeper than that. 

See, almost every game has some sort of in-game asset. For example, in Fortnite, you have in-game assets like skins and weapons. But those aren’t real assets. They’re worthless in the real world. Those assets can’t be sold to another person, they can’t be transferred, and they’re technically not even “owned” by you. 

But in Decentraland, everything is an asset, a real asset. The way this is possible is by turning every in-game asset into an NFT. For example, you can buy your own plot of land in Decentraland, build things on that plot of land, and since it’s an NFT, you can sell that plot of land to pretty much anyone you want to. 

It’s an incredibly fresh take on gaming in general, and it’s getting increasingly popular with time.

Buying Things in the Metaverse

To purchase land in Decentraland, you need to have the MANA token. 

This is the official medium of exchange within the Metaverse, and unlike in-game currencies of traditional games, it actually has value outside of the game as well. 

See, the MANA token can actually be traded on a crypto exchange like Binance, FTX, or Coinbase. You don’t even need to play Decentraland in order to buy and sell MANA tokens. You can just treat it like any individual cryptocurrency, and that’s exactly what most MANA investors are doing. 

But there’s a reason why investors think MANA is a better investment than just any other crypto. It actually has a use. Yeah, that’s something sadly missing from a lot of other alt coins out there.

MANA is the official currency of a popular Metaverse platform, and that already gives it more “utility” than most cryptos on the market. On the one hand, there are people that will buy the MANA token to use the Decentraland platform. On the other, there will also be people who buy the MANA token as an investment. 

When both of these factors are combined, it’ll give the MANA token a lot more stability in the long run. 

Why MANA is a Sleeper Crypto in 2022

A lot of people don’t consider MANA to be a good investment. We’ll tell you why they’re wrong shortly, but first, let’s take a look at why MANA wasn’t on a lot of people’s radars as of late. 

Basically, the big “growth” period for this crypto has already happened. It was initially launched all the way back in 2017, and it has grown thousands of times over since then. It’s almost certain that MANA will never see that kind of growth again, and that’s something that has turned investors off. 

On top of that, MANA hit an all-time high price of $5.4 back in 2021, but since then, the price has fallen all the way down to just $2.1. For all intents and purposes, the MANA token is not doing well. 

However, it’s important to understand that Decentraland is a platform that’s still in its infancy. Right now, there are a lot of technical issues, glitches, and problems with getting more players on board. 

If you connect the dots, MANA will not be successful as a crypto unless Decentraland is popular as a platform. 

The good news is that almost all signs lead to Decentraland becoming popular in the future. Here’s why.

For starters, the platform has already seen a lot of success. Some individual plots on Decentraland have sold for millions of dollars. On top of that, Decentraland has also attracted the attention of a few major brands looking to promote themselves in various ways. 

So far, companies like Samsung, Adidas, and Atari have all used virtual promotions in Decentraland or invested in Decentraland. Decentraland also has a lot of tie-ins with celebrities and other companies looking to hold virtual events. 

Sotheby’s auctions are often considered some of the most prestigious events in the world, since items worth billions are auctioned there every week. Well, with Decentraland, Sotheby held its first-ever virtual auction in the Metaverse. 

Concerts from legit artists have also happened in Decentraland, and other events like the Metaverse Fashion Week have also rocked the digital world. 

Even the finance sector is getting in on the action. For instance, accounting firms like Prager Metis have already invested sizeable amounts of cash in digital real estate.

These tie-ins are going to make Decentraland a lot more popular than it already is. It’s already reaching mainstream levels, and some believe that it might even turn into the next Facebook …or Meta …or whatever we call it these days. 

Playing the Long-Term Game With MANA

All of this is great news for anyone that wants to invest in the MANA token. 

If it goes up again, the appreciation of this token won’t be instantaneous. It’s likely going to take a long while before Decentraland can work out all of its tweaks.

Once the platform starts to mature, more features come out, and more people actually learn of its existence, though, we’re betting that the MANA token is going to rapidly increase right along with the rest of the platform that it powers.

Another important thing to note is that Decentraland is already pretty well-known in the crypto world, but it’s not big. It has a market cap of around $3 billion right now, which pales in comparison to the hundreds of billions — and sometimes even trillions — that Bitcoin and Ethereum have as a market cap. 

This means that, despite the initial rapid growth period being gone, there is still plenty of room for Decentraland to grow. Its growth is almost inevitable at this point, and we’re not talking something like a measly 10-20% growth, we’re talking massive growth that can turn the average investor into a millionaire. 

Keep in mind that all of this is mere speculation, not financial advice. At the end of the day, no one really knows what the future of Decentraland will be. Hell, most people don’t even know what the Metaverse is going to be like in general. 

It’s all one big happy sandbox experiment, at this point. There’s a lot of confusion around the topic, and only time will tell whether any of these Metaverse projects live up to the hype. 

As far as we know, though, heading into 2022 Decentraland seems like a top contender for the “next big thing,” the next dark horse, the next sleeper candidate in the cyrpto-sphere.

Of course, anything can change in the blink of an eye. We’ll have to invest and then wait and see what happens. Hold onto your wallets! (Metaphorically speaking, of course, because, you know… they’re digital and all.)