By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 17th, 2024
Mana, the native token of 3D virtual world platform Decentraland, is on a sustained surge since December 30th 2022.
Decentraland native token MANA recently experienced a 70% surge within the past week amid a strong performance by metaverse tokens to begin the year.
MANA price hit a base of $0.284 at the end of last December. However, the metaverse coin has experienced an upswing in 14 of the subsequent 16 days since then. In addition, although the token has eased some of its intraday gains, MANA’s price is still up 22% in the past 24 hours. Furthermore, the digital currency changed hands at $0.67 as of press time.
As a result of improving macroeconomic metrics, digital currencies with relatively smaller market caps have outperformed. This trend is due to growing positive investor sentiment regarding the broader crypto markets.
Other notable gaming and metaverse tokens also experienced marked rises in the last seven days. These include Gala Games (GALA), with a 30% increase, and The Sandbox’s SAND 32% surge in the past week.
Decentraland (MANA) Surge Coincides with 2023 Edition of Australian Open
It is also noteworthy that the recent Decentraland (MANA) surge coincides with the start of the Australian Open, which begins January 16th. Decentraland heralded the return of the Australian Open on Twitter. According to reports, both the Australian Open “AOmetaverse” and Decentraland’s largest commercial zone Vegas City have a designated Twitter space for January 17th. The two parties plan to disseminate essential details regarding the 14-day activation of the grand slam tennis tournament.
Australian Open Metaverse Replica
Exactly a year ago, the yearly-opening Australian Open grand slam tennis tournament launched a virtual replica in the Decentraland metaverse. The primary motivation behind this initiative is to offer fans more access and possibilities.
At the time, Australian Open and Metaverse and NFT project manager Ridley Plummer described the tournament’s virtual replica as innovative. In addition, Plummer also stated that Tennis Australia was intent on leveraging the emerging metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). As he put it back then:
“I think we’re a sporting organization, and for the most part of the year, we’re used to seeing people playing tennis on courts… as we tried to expand what we do as a business, the natural progression of that is to get into gaming and to get into more offline stuff in a second screen. So, when we were discussing six to eight months ago what the next step is, naturally, the metaverse was the first thing that came up, and NFTs as well. So, we sort of jumped headfirst into this space three or four months ago.”
Plummer also pointed out the dynamic viewing possibilities of Decentraland’s Australian Open as appealing to fans. He teased numerous special visual effects and spectacles, including the “Matrix Effect,” which provides a reverse feed of the on-court action. Furthermore, as an added bonus, Plummer opined that the AO metaverse could help lure some crypto and NFT buffs to tennis.
Plummer suggested that Tennis Australia viewed the virtual grand slam tournament as a sustainable scheme that would become a sports and entertainment mecca.