Download

Citi GPS

Today, the most popular way to experience the Metaverse is via a video game played on a virtual reality (VR) headset. But in the report that follows, we discuss the possibility that the Metaverse is moving towards becoming the next iteration of the internet, or Web3. This “Open Metaverse” would be community-owned, community-governed, and a freely interoperable version that ensures privacy by design. Users should increasingly be able to access a host of use cases, including commerce, art, media, advertising, healthcare, and social collaboration. A device-agnostic Metaverse would be accessible via personal computers, game consoles, and smartphones, resulting in a large ecosystem. Using this broad definition, the total addressable market for the Metaverse could be between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030, with total Metaverse users numbering around five billion. But getting to that market level is going to require infrastructure investment. The content streaming environment of the Metaverse will likely require a computational efficiency improvement of over 1,000x today’s levels. Investment will be needed in areas such as compute, storage, network infrastructure, consumer hardware, and game development platforms. The definition of what counts as money in the Open Metaverse is also likely to be very different from what counts as money in the real world today. Interoperability and seamless exchange between underlying blockchain technology are critical to ensure a frictionless user experience. Different forms of cryptocurrency are expected to dominate, but given the multi-chain trend in the crypto ecosystem, cryptocurrency will likely coexist with fiat currencies, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and stablecoins. Finally, if the Metaverse is indeed the new iteration of the internet, it will mostly likely attract greater scrutiny from global regulators, policymakers, and governments. Issues such as anti-money laundering rules for exchanges and wallets, the use of decentralized finance (DeFi), crypto assets, and property rights will all have to be addressed. Authors: Ronit Ghose, CFA,Nisha Surendran,Sophia Bantanidis,Kaiwan Master,Ronak S Shah,Puneet Singhvi,

<p>Today, the most popular way to experience the Metaverse is via a video game played on a virtual reality (VR) headset. But in the report that follows, we discuss the possibility that the Metaverse is moving towards becoming the next iteration of the internet, or Web3. This &ldquo;Open Metaverse&rdquo; would be community-owned, community-governed, and a freely interoperable version that ensures privacy by design.<br /><br />Users should increasingly be able to access a host of use cases, including commerce, art, media, advertising, healthcare, and social collaboration. A device-agnostic Metaverse would be accessible via personal computers, game consoles, and smartphones, resulting in a large ecosystem. Using this broad definition, the total addressable market for the Metaverse could be between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030, with total Metaverse users numbering around five billion.<br /><br />But getting to that market level is going to require infrastructure investment. The content streaming environment of the Metaverse will likely require a computational efficiency improvement of over 1,000x today&rsquo;s levels. Investment will be needed in areas such as compute, storage, network infrastructure, consumer hardware, and game development platforms.<br /><br />The definition of what counts as money in the Open Metaverse is also likely to be very different from what counts as money in the real world today. Interoperability and seamless exchange between underlying blockchain technology are critical to ensure a frictionless user experience. Different forms of cryptocurrency are expected to dominate, but given the multi-chain trend in the crypto ecosystem, cryptocurrency will likely coexist with fiat currencies, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and stablecoins.<br /><br />Finally, if the Metaverse is indeed the new iteration of the internet, it will mostly likely attract greater scrutiny from global regulators, policymakers, and governments. Issues such as anti-money laundering rules for exchanges and wallets, the use of decentralized finance (DeFi), crypto assets, and property rights will all have to be addressed.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.citivelocity.com/cv-content-web/eppublic/wrap/epfcms/html/1_yoim445t" width="800" height="450" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><span class="authList" style="display: none;"><iframe src="https://ir.citi.com/gps/IyjCME0N6tTM7CpteTvOUhDBZDqbXnU48xzBT9H0mqEZGeuYxNqxq%2FcTJpzpzjYTIwrTKKmOXBk%3D?embedcode=true&amp;autoscale=true&amp;autoplay=true&amp;touchControls=true" width="810" height="450" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>Authors: Ronit Ghose, CFA,Nisha Surendran,Sophia Bantanidis,Kaiwan Master,Ronak S Shah,Puneet Singhvi,</span></p>

The Metaverse Is Potentially an $8 Trillion to $13 Trillion Opportunity We believe the Metaverse may be the next generation of the internet — combining the physical and digital world in a persistent and immersive manner — and not purely a Virtual Reality world. A device-agnostic Metaverse accessible via PCs, game consoles, and smartphones could results in a very large ecosystem. Based on our definition, we estimate the total addressable market for the Metaverse economy could grow to between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030.

We believe the Metaverse may be the next generation of the internet — combining the physical and digital world in a persistent and immersive manner — and not purely a Virtual Reality world. A device-agnostic Metaverse accessible via PCs, game consoles, and smartphones could results in a very large ecosystem. Based on our definition, we estimate the total addressable market for the Metaverse economy could grow to between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030.

The Metaverse Is Potentially an $8 Trillion to $13 Trillion Opportunity

Metaverse Use Cases Gaming is viewed as a key Metaverse use case for the next several years due to the immersive and multi-player experience of the space currently But we believe that the Metaverse will eventually help us find new and enhanced ways to do all our current activities, including commerce, entertainment and media, education and training, manufacturing and enterprise in general. Enterprise use cases of the Metaverse in the coming years will likely include internal collaboration, client contact, sales and marketing, advertising, events and conference, engineering and design, and workforce training.

Gaming is viewed as a key Metaverse use case for the next several years due to the immersive and multi-player experience of the space currently But we believe that the Metaverse will eventually help us find new and enhanced ways to do all our current activities, including commerce, entertainment and media, education and training, manufacturing and enterprise in general. Enterprise use cases of the Metaverse in the coming years will likely include internal collaboration, client contact, sales and marketing, advertising, events and conference, engineering and design, and workforce training.

Metaverse Use Cases

Still Early: Metaverse Infrastructure Building In the current state, the internet infrastructure is unsuitable for building a full-immersive, content streaming Metaverse environment, that enables users to go seamlessly from one experience to another. To make the vision of Metaverse a reality, we expect significant investment in a confluence of technology. Low latency — the time it takes a data signal to travel from one point on the internet to another point and then come back — is critical to building a more realistic user experience.

In the current state, the internet infrastructure is unsuitable for building a full-immersive, content streaming Metaverse environment, that enables users to go seamlessly from one experience to another. To make the vision of Metaverse a reality, we expect significant investment in a confluence of technology. Low latency — the time it takes a data signal to travel from one point on the internet to another point and then come back — is critical to building a more realistic user experience.

Still Early: Metaverse Infrastructure Building

Money in the Metaverse We expect the next generation of the internet, i.e., the Metaverse, would encapsulate a range of form factors of money, including the existing/traditional forms of money and also upcoming digitally-native forms of money — cryptocurrency, stablecoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) — that were out of scope in a pre-blockchain virtual world.

We expect the next generation of the internet, i.e., the Metaverse, would encapsulate a range of form factors of money, including the existing/traditional forms of money and also upcoming digitally-native forms of money — cryptocurrency, stablecoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) — that were out of scope in a pre-blockchain virtual world.

Money in the Metaverse

Today, the most popular way to experience the Metaverse is via a video game played on a virtual reality (VR) headset. But in the report that follows, we discuss the possibility that the Metaverse is moving towards becoming the next iteration of the internet, or Web3. This “Open Metaverse” would be community-owned, community-governed, and a freely interoperable version that ensures privacy by design. Users should increasingly be able to access a host of use cases, including commerce, art, media, advertising, healthcare, and social collaboration. A device-agnostic Metaverse would be accessible via personal computers, game consoles, and smartphones, resulting in a large ecosystem. Using this broad definition, the total addressable market for the Metaverse could be between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030, with total Metaverse users numbering around five billion. But getting to that market level is going to require infrastructure investment. The content streaming environment of the Metaverse will likely require a computational efficiency improvement of over 1,000x today’s levels. Investment will be needed in areas such as compute, storage, network infrastructure, consumer hardware, and game development platforms. The definition of what counts as money in the Open Metaverse is also likely to be very different from what counts as money in the real world today. Interoperability and seamless exchange between underlying blockchain technology are critical to ensure a frictionless user experience. Different forms of cryptocurrency are expected to dominate, but given the multi-chain trend in the crypto ecosystem, cryptocurrency will likely coexist with fiat currencies, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and stablecoins. Finally, if the Metaverse is indeed the new iteration of the internet, it will mostly likely attract greater scrutiny from global regulators, policymakers, and governments. Issues such as anti-money laundering rules for exchanges and wallets, the use of decentralized finance (DeFi), crypto assets, and property rights will all have to be addressed. Authors: Ronit Ghose, CFA,Nisha Surendran,Sophia Bantanidis,Kaiwan Master,Ronak S Shah,Puneet Singhvi, The Metaverse Is Potentially an $8 Trillion to $13 Trillion Opportunity We believe the Metaverse may be the next generation of the internet — combining the physical and digital world in a persistent and immersive manner — and not purely a Virtual Reality world. A device-agnostic Metaverse accessible via PCs, game consoles, and smartphones could results in a very large ecosystem. Based on our definition, we estimate the total addressable market for the Metaverse economy could grow to between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030. Metaverse Use Cases Gaming is viewed as a key Metaverse use case for the next several years due to the immersive and multi-player experience of the space currently But we believe that the Metaverse will eventually help us find new and enhanced ways to do all our current activities, including commerce, entertainment and media, education and training, manufacturing and enterprise in general. Enterprise use cases of the Metaverse in the coming years will likely include internal collaboration, client contact, sales and marketing, advertising, events and conference, engineering and design, and workforce training. Still Early: Metaverse Infrastructure Building In the current state, the internet infrastructure is unsuitable for building a full-immersive, content streaming Metaverse environment, that enables users to go seamlessly from one experience to another. To make the vision of Metaverse a reality, we expect significant investment in a confluence of technology. Low latency — the time it takes a data signal to travel from one point on the internet to another point and then come back — is critical to building a more realistic user experience. Money in the Metaverse We expect the next generation of the internet, i.e., the Metaverse, would encapsulate a range of form factors of money, including the existing/traditional forms of money and also upcoming digitally-native forms of money — cryptocurrency, stablecoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) — that were out of scope in a pre-blockchain virtual world.

The Metaverse may be the next generation of the internet, combining the physical and digital world in an immersive way.

Metaverse and Money - CitiGPS

Decrypting the Future

The Metaverse as a concept has been around for a few decades. However, interest in the virtual world spiked at the end of 2021 following a rise in sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as well as announcements from Big Tech players indicating their interest and investment in the space.

Metaverse and Money

Citi GPS: Global Perspectives and Solutions Podcast

So, what exactly is the Metaverse? It's the next generation of the internet, attracting both attention and investments and holds the potential for endless use cases. Yet, it isn't easy to agree on an exact definition of it. That's what we tackle in this episode.

Metaverse 101 | Metaverse and Money

Digital property in the Metaverse looks like a lot of different things: skins, avatars, emotes, fungible tokens, and collectibles—and that’s just what we imagine now. But how do we know we own them? Enter, the NFT. 

Digital Assets & NFTs | Metaverse and Money

As the Metaverse develops, a spectrum of financial services can play an important role in the evolution of the next generation of the internet. We explore what it would mean for the Metaverse to truly function as an alternate economy through decentralized finance.  

Decentralized Finance | Metaverse and Money

Banking, Capital Markets & Advisory

Securities Services

Commercial Bank

Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions

Global Insights

Leadership

Private Bank

Treasury & Trade Solutions

Markets

Issuer Services

Citi Digital Assets

Citi Research

Wealth

News

SEC Filings

Perspectives

Europe, Middle East and Africa

North America

Latin America

Asia Pacific

Social Welfare Funds

Development Organizations

SOEs

Multilateral Development Bank

Central Banks

Central Governments

Ministry of Finance

Local Governments

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Regional Development Bank

Fraud Prevention

FinTech

iBuyers

Mortgage

Origination

PropTech

Real Estate

Single-Family Rental

Data

GDPR

Privacy

Regulsyion

Auto

Demand

Food

Industrial

Metals

Russia

Shortage

Supply

Supply Chain

Tariff

Ukraine

Asteroids

Imagery

Logistics

Mining

Moon

Rockets

Satellites

Space

Space-Based Solar Power

Aware

Do No Harm

Impact

Investing

Monitoring

Risk

Sustainability

Taxonomies

Augmented Reality

Cryptocurrency

dApps

DeFi

Metaverse

Money

Virtual Reality

VR/AR

Auction

Disruption

Money Laundering

Online

Regulation

Virtual

Entrepreneur

Equal Opportunity

Equality

Global Growth

Innovation

Venture Capital

Women

Women Entrepreneurs

Education

Eliminating Poverty

Health

Multidimensional Index

Poverty

Standard of Living

Sustainability-Linked Bond

UN SDG

Inflation

Just in Case

Just in Time

Production

Transportation

Charity

Donations

Multiplier

Philanthropy

Service

Technology

Growth & Prosperity

Risk & Resilience

Sustainability & Society

Technology & Innovation

Health & Wellness

Citi Blog

Press Release

Regulatory

Product Marketing

Wealth Publications

ICG Insight Detail Template

As our premier thought leadership product, Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions (Citi GPS) is designed to help our clients navigate the global economy’s most demanding challenges, identify future themes and trends, and prosper in a fast-changing and interconnected world. 

Keep Exploring CITI GPS Content

Keep up to date with our latest insights.

Subscribe to Citi GPS

gpa-footer

gpa-menu

Citi, the leading global bank, serves more than 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Learn more today.

Global Investment Bank and Financial Services | Citi

Metaverse 101 | Metaverse and Money

Digital Assets & NFTs | Metaverse and Money

Decentralized Finance | Metaverse and Money

Metaverse and Money

Subscribe

Sign up to receive the latest news from Citi.

About Us

Businesses

Our Impact

Investors

News

Careers, Contact Us, and Regulatory Disclosures