Buying and selling land in the metaverse doesn’t require a middle-man. But an early group of agents has jumped into the volatile market. Where are they now?

In a shifting real estate market, the guidance and expertise that Inman imparts are never more valuable. Whether at our events, or with our daily news coverage and how-to journalism, we’re here to help you build your business, adopt the right tools — and make money. Join us in person in Las Vegas at Connect, and utilize your Select subscription for all the information you need to make the right decisions. When the waters get choppy, trust Inman to help you navigate.

Helping clients navigate real-world home decisions can be a hard problem, even for an experienced real estate agent.

But for a new crop of agents, the job comes with the added challenge of helping mistrustful clients avoid an array of scam opportunities, as the underlying market continues to muddle through a dramatic crash in prices.

This is the world in which the first metaverse real estate agents have found themselves, particularly in the crypto-powered virtual realms of Decentraland and the Sandbox, according to agents who spoke with Inman.

In these metaverses, entirely virtual plots of land can be bought and sold as unique tokens called NFTs, then rented out to developers and other users. 

But since their respective high points in November, the crypto assets that underlie every virtual land transaction in the two largest metaverses have lost more than 80 percent of their value against the U.S. dollar.

Value of Decentraland’s Mana cryptocurrency (in U.S. dollars)

Chart from CoinMarketCap.com

Sebastian Pelle | Decentraland Property Group

“It is quite risky and it is quite painful,” said Sebastian Pelle, co-founder of Decentraland Property Group. “However, we’re also finding that people are willing to come and spend more because it’s cheaper at the moment, which is also good.”

Land that changes hands in the largest of these virtual worlds is paid for in unique cryptocurrency tokens. In Decentraland, the name of that token is Mana. In the Sandbox, purchases are made with a cryptocurrency called Sand.

The crash in these metaverse markets has been even more severe than plummeting prices of the most popular blockchain-based financial assets, Bitcoin and Ethereum.

And for some of the largest early investors, millions of dollars are on the line.

A crypto ‘land’ boom

When Facebook changed its name to Meta in October, it drove crypto investors to pour millions of dollars into this nascent category of digital metaverses.

These decentralized virtual worlds — including Decentraland, the Sandbox and others — would begin to take off as some of America’s largest tech companies put money into building their own metaverse platforms.

Some tracts of digital land sold for millions — including one $2.4 million plot in Decentraland and a $4.3 million tract in the Sandbox.

Now, the same amount of cryptocurrency used to purchase each of those tracts of land would trade for less than $1 million.

A number of smaller investors also bought in. Pelle was one of them.

“I own a land,” Pelle said. “The land has gone down a lot [in price], which isn’t ideal.”

Still, the rental yields from owning land in the metaverse can be quite good, Pelle said. The problem is that there isn’t a robust market for renters, because the process is viewed by many as prone to scams.

That’s where Pelle and his co-founder, Ollie Cardone, got the idea for their virtual real estate business.

Obstacles to overcome

Lots of virtual landowners would like to rent their properties out, Pelle and Cardone said.

The problem has been finding renters, in part due to the risk involved for nonowners.

The way the current rental process is set up in Decentraland, there’s little to stop a bad actor from scamming would-be renters, they said. A landowner can add a renter as an operator, deposit their rent in their own crypto wallet, then simply remove the renter as an operator of the property again.

“We decided we could probably create a better system that is safer for people to use and eliminates all risk of scams,” Pelle said.

As agents, Decentraland Property Group vets renters and owners, matches their clients with reputable partners, and handles the process on their end to ensure up-front payment for landowners and continued access to the land for renters through the duration of the agreement.

These measures to cut down on vulnerability to scams have proven valuable to clients, they said, even in a world where many investors are highly skeptical of middle-men.

This skepticism of agents and other intermediaries is widely felt throughout the crypto community, the CEO of a metaverse developer told Inman in February.

“That entire concept of an agent is an anathema to the crypto ecosystem, and the metaverse ecosystem is the crypto ecosystem,” Janine Yorio, CEO of the developer Everyrealm, said on a video call at the time.

But the rise of scams and other difficulties have opened the door for a human intermediary. Several other firms are active on Decentraland’s Discord server, reaching out to potential clients with properties to buy, sell and rent.

Ollie Cardone | Decentraland Property Group

For now, the main use for agents in the metaverse is in helping owners rent land out, Cardone said. Other agents do offer help with buying and selling, but most users are comfortable handling that process themselves, he said.

“Decentraland itself has a marketplace for lands to buy and sell,” Cardone said. “So you technically don’t need an agent to buy and sell a piece of land.”

The crypto market crash — which has been felt by users of popular blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum as well as holders of these metaverse tokens — has come with pros and cons for metaverse real estate agents, Pelle said.

“It’s been quite difficult because our commission has almost halved, because we do most of our transactions in the Mana token,” Pelle said. 

At the same time, the cheaper prices have led to a larger volume of clients, and an opportunity to grow their customer base in case the highly volatile market for virtual land goes up again.

The hope among nearly all investors in this space is that the market for these cryptocurrencies will eventually return to their previous highs, Pelle said. Mana, once trading around $5 per token, fell dramatically in recent months and was still trading for less than a dollar Monday afternoon. 

“If we went back to Mana within $5, everything would be five times the amount that it is now, roughly,” Pelle said.

Email Daniel Houston

Show Comments Hide Comments
Sign up for Inman’s Morning Headlines
What you need to know to start your day with all the latest industry developments
By submitting your email address, you agree to receive marketing emails from Inman.
Success!
Thank you for subscribing to Morning Headlines.
Back to top
Only 3 days left to register for Inman Connect Las Vegas before prices go up! Don't miss the premier event for real estate pros.Register Now ×
Limited Time Offer: Get 1 year of Inman Select for $199SUBSCRIBE×
Log in
If you created your account with Google or Facebook
Don't have an account?
Forgot your password?
No Problem

Simply enter the email address you used to create your account and click "Reset Password". You will receive additional instructions via email.

Forgot your username? If so please contact customer support at (510) 658-9252

Password Reset Confirmation

Password Reset Instructions have been sent to

Subscribe to The Weekender
Get the week's leading headlines delivered straight to your inbox.
Top headlines from around the real estate industry. Breaking news as it happens.
15 stories covering tech, special reports, video and opinion.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
It looks like you’re already a Select Member!
To subscribe to exclusive newsletters, visit your email preferences in the account settings.
Up-to-the-minute news and interviews in your inbox, ticket discounts for Inman events and more
1-Step CheckoutPay with a credit card
By continuing, you agree to Inman’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

You will be charged . Your subscription will automatically renew for on . For more details on our payment terms and how to cancel, click here.

Interested in a group subscription?
Finish setting up your subscription
×