Projects like Decentraland (MANA) and ApeCoin (APE) have seen significant hype over the past couple of years. But recent lackluster performance has led investors to search elsewhere, particularly in budding industries like Web3 and metaverse gaming.
A new project combining the best of both, known as Metacade (MCADE), has recently been causing a stir in the crypto community. Today, we’ll explore whether Metacade could overtake Decentraland and ApeCoin to become a market leader in the future of gaming.
What is Decentraland (MANA)?
Decentraland (MANA) is one of the leading metaverse projects on the market today. It’s a virtual 3D world where users can buy and sell in-game items with the MANA token, socialise, and build alongside the rest of the Decentraland community. Its digital real estate, represented by the LAND non-fungible token (NFT), can be used to make virtually anything. Games, gambling services, art galleries, classrooms, and hotels are just some of the creations you’ll find while exploring Decentraland, all built by the community.
LAND can even be bundled together to create Districts and Estates built around a central theme. For example, you might find huge amusement parks or entire cities that are filled with everything you’d typically see in the real world.
Now, there are even events held in Decentraland that attract hundreds, if not thousands, of users. These include dance parties, scavenger hunts, film festivals, art exhibitions, and conferences that are all held regularly by the Decentraland community.
Where is Decentraland (MANA) Today?
Decentraland has been around for nearly five years yet only really saw mainstream success in 2021, particularly in late October when Facebook announced its foray into the metaverse. This led MANA to rocket from $0.75 on the 17th of October to a high of $6.09 on the 25th of October - a 700%+ increase.
The crypto bear market has been unkind to MANA, however, as it’s retraced all the way back to $0.75 as of October 2022, losing around -88% of its value in the process. It currently sits at #43 on CoinMarketCap’s leaderboard.
What is ApeCoin (APE)?
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) was undoubtedly one of the hottest NFT projects of 2021. Celebrities like Eminem, Jimmy Fallon, and Justin Bieber were all picking up these profile-picture NFTs, and one even sold for $3.4 million at Sotheby’s auction house in October 2021. Because of the incredible popularity of these NFTs, Yuga Labs, the creators of BAYC, launched the ApeCoin Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO). The ApeCoin DAO allows its token holders to vote on where funds are allocated, future projects, partnerships, and more.
At its core, APE is both a governance and utility token. It not only allows users to have their say on how the ApeCoin DAO should be run but gives its holders exclusive access to members-only features like events, merch, and games. The ApeCoin Foundation’s Board implements all governance decisions made by the community, and voting is held each year to decide on new Board members.
Where is ApeCoin (APE) Today?
Since its inception in March 2022, APE has struggled to maintain any bullishness. After launching at $1, APE peaked at $27.60 on the 28th of April. Since then, however, it’s tumbled around -81% to be worth $5.22 today. It currently sits at #37 on the crypto leaderboard.
What is Metacade (MCADE)?
Metacade is one of the hottest new metaverse projects launching in 2022. It’s a Web3 community hub where users can go to find the best Play2Earn titles, discover how to earn more from the future of gaming, and connect with like-minded gamers from around the world.
Instead of allowing game studios to capture the value generated by user-generated content, Metacade plans to reward users directly for their role in shaping the community. For example, when players review games or share valuable tips, they’ll be rewarded with the MCADE token. Eventually, Metacade even intends to launch a testing environment for developers to receive real-time feedback where the fees paid go directly into the pockets of beta testers.
This close-knit community of Web3 fanatics, developers, entrepreneurs, and crypto investors is likely to lead to some fantastic ideas being generated. That’s why Metacade plans to launch Metagrants. These are allocated in competitions that see gaming developers battling it out to gain funding for their ideas, as voted for by the Metacade community. This will eventually lead to Metacade’s virtual arcade hosting dozens of games backed and developed by the community that draw in thousands of blockchain gaming enthusiasts.
Like ApeCoin, Metacade plans to be entirely decentralised and self-sustaining through its DAO. MCADE holders will be able to vote on leadership roles, upcoming partnerships, new features, and more. The community can even vote on the number of tokens in circulation through a token burning/buyback mechanism to restrict supply if necessary.
Why Could Metacade (MCADE) Surpass Decentraland (MANA) and ApeCoin (APE)?
With GameFi set to grow at 10x the speed of traditional gaming over the next three years, according to Crypto.com, Metacade is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the mammoth growth metaverse and Web3 gaming will see.
While Decentraland has a proven track record, its future growth depends on users finding enough value in its virtual world, which given a recent report from Coindesk that Decentraland only has 38 daily active users, is currently in question.
ApeCoin has seen adoption primarily because of the hype around NFTs. While NFTs undoubtedly have use cases, this hype was driven by greed more than anything else. As the NFT market matures and even more projects are launched, it becomes harder to stand out. Unless Yuga Labs can truly differentiate itself, then ApeCoin’s future growth is restricted.
Meanwhile, Metacade has the first-mover advantage in an industry with significant hype and understands the importance of giving users value at every step. Given these factors, Metacade could easily surpass both Decentraland and ApeCoin as players flock to its platform to be a part of the gaming revolution.
You can buy Decentraland and ApeCoin at eToro here.
You can participate in the Metacade pre-sale here.
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