Metaverse tokens' big bang

Metaverse tokens are a furnace blast on this cold November Friday. Two of the biggest, best-known meta-coins are still surging after a piping hot 11 months, and a scorching stretch of seven days.

The Sandbox (SAND), 49th-largest coin, reached a new all-time high of $4.64 yesterday. SAND is up 80% in the past week and up 8,000% since the start of the year.

No. 40 Decentraland (MANA) rose 50% in the past week. It hit another ATH, $4.25, earlier today, after hitting one a few days ago.

MANA, as of 7:30 a.m. (EST), had pulled back somewhat, resting at about $4.10, but having increased 7% in 24 hours.

Stoking optimism: a surge of investments in the metaverse space, as well as in gaming, virtual reality and, of course, non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The Winklevoss twins' crypto concern, Gemini, just raised $400 million for metaverse projects. Now some South Korean banks are all in as well. As Forkast reported, The Industrial Bank of Korea announced a memorandum of understanding with Cyworld Z, an early days social media platform now being revamped as a metaverse. Additionally, IBK plans to create a metaverse bank called IBK Dotori Bank.

Earlier this month, The Sandbox was filled with $93 million worth of Series B funding led by SoftBank. Later this month, the virtual property/gaming platform plans to open up part of its metaverse to some select players for the first time via a special multi-week roll-out "alpha" event (Cointelegraph).

NFT mania has fully bloomed, but the metaverse is just heating up and "might continue to surge, irrespective of market trends," CoinGape said.

In the nine days since hitting its record high of $69K, Bitcoin has plunged, dropping again in the past 24 hours to nearly $57K. Earlier on Friday, in Asian trading, BTC fell below $56K. Most altcoins were bleeding out overnight, but wounds seem slightly staunched at sunrise relative to the wee hours.

For example, Ethereum, the second-largest crypto and a gateway to the NFT craze, drifted below $4K late Thursday into Friday. But ETH, as of 8 a.m. (EST), was $4,100-ish, having lost 1% in 24 hours, not exactly a bloodbath.

Algorand (ALGO) spiked mid-week in a straight line from well below $2 all the way to well above $2. Its round trip is now complete. ALGO as of 8 a.m. was $1.80. That represents a drop of 5% in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Crypto.com Coin (CRO), on news of Crypto.com's sponsorship deal with an iconic sporting arena, reached an ATH of about $0.59. That was yesterday. CRO has since declined 14%.

Mortgage-backed securities. Asset-backed securities. Pools of student loans, car loans, credit card receivables – all sorts of payment streams – bundled together, turned into financial instruments, rated by third-parties and neatly sold off with hefty deal-making fees layered into the mix for good measure. These are a few of Wall Street investment bankers' favorite things.

And these are specific segments of the securities industry seen as most vulnerable to disruption from blockchain technology, according to CoinDesk, citing a new research note circulated by the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

Blockchain, RBC says, “offers distinct value propositions. These include: displacing trust with truth; real-time bilateral settlements; real-time servicing; enhanced security; automation; the ability to operate 24/7/365,” according to the note.

Lurking in the shadows for several years, blockchain has finally developed speed and scale to a level that’s now perfect for certain segments of the banking and financial markets.