On Thursday, Meta [formerly known as Facebook] Platforms saw stock market value plummet by more than $230 billion. The 26% drop is a new low for a US company in a single day. Facebook’s daily active users (DAUs) have declined for the first time in the company’s 18-year history, according to Meta. Despite the historic hit, Metaverse tokens seem to have gained from Meta’s loss.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, this shake-up in the stock market led the chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth to dropped by $31 billion. Interestingly, its share price decline was an amount equal to Estonia’s annual gross domestic product.
Nevertheless, Zuckerberg claimed that the company’s sales growth had been hampered by audiences, particularly younger users, deflecting to competitors.
Metaverse out shines Meta
The price of Decentraland’s MANA token has risen over 20% in the last seven days, from a seven-day low of $2.19 to recent support levels around the $2.60 mark.
Similarly, SAND tokens for The Sandbox, one of Decentraland’s key Metaverse competitors, have gained 17.5% in seven days, starting at a low of $3.31 and rising to a high of over $4, with support levels at $3.60.
Aside from Meta, other factors also seem to be influencing MANA and SAND prices this week. The Decentraland 2022 Manifesto was released, announcing a prototype mobile app, improvements to the play experience, increased NFT usefulness, and protocol advancements.
Additionally, The Sandbox team has announced a cooperation with UniX Gaming, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), as well as a February 10th release of extra “land” in its metaverse.
The Sandbox is owned by Animoca Brands, and earlier this week, there were unverified speculations that Meta might be acquiring the Metaverse platform. Yat Siu, Animoca Brands chairman, and co-founder, on the other hand, quickly put an end to those reports on February 3.
Other large tech giants, like Apple and Microsoft, are entering the market in addition to Meta. With a recent job advertisement for a Business Development Manager asking for someone to “help lead Disney’s efforts in the NFT area,” it appears that the entertainment behemoth is gearing up for a foray into the Metaverse as well.