JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) became the first bank to enter the metaverse by opening a lounge in Decentraland, a virtual world based on blockchain technology.
According to CoinDesk, the U.S lender unveiled its Onyx lounge, called after the bank’s location in the metaverse and released a paper on the opportunities offered by the virtual world.
But it stressed many things need to improve such as user experience, performance of avatars and commercial infrastructure.
The paper argued the metaverse will open up several money-making opportunities to businesses, with entertainment and designers likely to benefit from the space.
JPMorgan also predicts in-game ad spending in the metaverse will reach roughly US$19bn in the next five years.
According to CoinDesk, JPMorgan began its assessment of ‘metanomics’, the economy within the metaverse, by pointing out the average price of a piece of virtual land doubled last year to $12,000 in the four main Web3 spaces.
“In time, the virtual real estate market could start seeing services much like in the physical world, including credit, mortgages and rental agreements,” said the report.