Metaverse-related tokens skyrocketed after Facebook FB +4% declared on Thursday that it would rename as Meta in order to better align itself with the augmented and virtual reality-driven future.
According to cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko, the category’s market cap has increased by 262.9 percent in the last 18 hours, to $13.4 billion.
Half a dozen coins, including some of the largest, are up more than 50% on the day, including MANA, the Ethereum token that powers the Decentraland virtual reality platform, and STARL, the native asset of the namesake decentralized virtual space project. With a 112.8 percent increase, ETHV (Ethverse), the token of a virtual universe constructed utilizing the Minecraft gaming engine and Ethereum blockchain, is the day’s biggest gainer.
Axie Infinity, a popular NFT-based online video game with over $7.5 billion in sales, has seen its token grow 11 percent.
After the social networking company said it would change its name to Meta, reflecting its bet on the next version of the internet centered around virtual experiences, Facebook’s stock ended the day with a slight 1.5 percent gain. The rebranding comes after a slew of allegations about the company’s inability to prevent the spread of false information and offensive content on its platform.
Facebook said the day before the announcement that it will invest at least $10 billion this year to create its metaverse division and that it would hire 10,000 workers in the European Union over the following five years to help grow the project. On December 1, the company will begin trading under the ticker MVRS.
