Apple will deliver its highly anticipated mixed-reality headgear in the following weeks, which some say will revitalize the metaverse sector. In January, the native currencies of blockchain-based metaverse projects Decentraland $0.47 and Sandbox $0.50 saw substantial price increases, partly due to rumors regarding Apple’s foray into mixed reality.
This pattern was highlighted in a May 15 tweet by independent developer Udi Wertheimer, who mentioned the imminent release as a potential driver of metaverse token pricing in a backhanded response to the silliness of influencer-driven memecoins.
In an interview, eToro market analyst Josh Gilbert stated that the new headset will set the markets on fire, thanks to Apple’s proven ability to provide high-quality, market-shifting items, stating: “When Apple does it, they usually do it right.” The analyst is sceptical that the debut of the new headgear will be the “crucial moment” that will resurrect metaverse-related coins.
It’s also worth noting that while many crypto market participants immediately associate virtual reality with “metaverse tokens,” Decentraland is still in the process of developing its VR capabilities, and The Sandbox previously told Cointelegraph that it has “no immediate or future plans” to develop VR.
In this regard, Gilbert, like many others, believes that a truly immersive metaverse experience is still a “long way off,” especially given the time lag between the iPhone’s initial release and the availability of apps that fully realized the hardware’s promise.
According to him, the performance of metaverse tokens such as MANA and Sandbox’s $0.50 token will depend more on the metaverse’s widespread adoption among everyday users.
“The bottom line is that we are still in the early stages of the metaverse world, and their future performance will be heavily dependent on the Metaverse’s popularity.”
During the 2021 crypto bull run, the metaverse and the cryptocurrencies linked with it, such as MANA and SAND, soared in prominence as a slew of projects backed by seemingly endless war chests of venture capital promised to construct groundbreaking immersive virtual worlds for users.
Unfortunately, many of those firms, including Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, which has spent $13.7 billion on R&D in 2022, have yet to achieve widespread adoption among ordinary people.
According to CoinGecko data, the prices of MANA and SAND are currently down 92% and 94% from their all-time highs, which were both hit on November 25, 2021.
According to Mark Gurhman, an Apple product soothsayer, the California-based tech giant’s new headset will be released on June 5, marking the first big product release since the Apple Watch in 2015.
