The Call of the Metaverse: NFT Projects Invest in Virtual Economy to Stay Competitive

“Utility” is the buzzword for NFTs in 2022, and some forward-looking projects are looking to make a bold move into the metaverse by integrating gamification and token issuance strategies into their roadmaps.

As NFT projects make their ambitious forays into the metaverse, they seem to be moving away from static image NFTs to the integration of mechanics that provide utility.

Notably, Bored Ape Yacht Club has amassed over $1 billion in total transaction volume and has officially announced a mobile game and P2E (play and earn) game, while other ape-like projects, CyberKongz and SmolBrains, have Continue to announce new gamification feature integrations.

Investors seem to be looking at projects not only with a strong community and utility, but also with technical capabilities. The series of waves that Cool Cats' Cool Pets line went through at launch is a testament to that. The series has been in a downtrend since then, and holders are clearly waiting for them to show their strength.

Perhaps, NFT collections are maturing and focused on achieving their long-term roadmap. Or maybe they are looking for ways to maintain their community value and competitiveness in 2022.

Project Locked Utility

According to rumors, there's a new term to watch out for, "play-and-kollect," a phrase coined by CyberKongz. CyberKongz is one of the first in the series to integrate a token generation mechanism into its NFT and reproduction mechanism. The role of its governance token, BANANA, is to allow users to personalize their NFTs and breed BebeKongz.

In a similar fashion, Franky Nines' SupDucks PFP series issued VOLT, the utility token that collectors use to buy ingredients to breed MegaToad. By integrating token mechanics and models, projects are also gamifying their experience.

In order to incentivize BebeKongz holders and provide them with utility, CyberKongz announced that each BebeKong can be exchanged for one CyberKongz VX. The CyberKongz VX is a 3D pixelated version of the series with a full body.

Since its launch on August 15, 2021, CyberKongz VX has a base price of 2.4 ETH ($6430.22), and the average daily price has increased by nearly 193% to 3.5 ETH ($9377.41).

Jungle Adventure enables holders to fully utilize their CyberKongz VX to collect Kongnium Ore (ERC-1155 tokens) which can be exchanged for exclusive prize pools of NFTs and BANANA.

The overarching theme of collecting while playing in the CyberKongz ecosystem is that each collection plays a key role in providing utility. Works are no longer just aesthetically pleasing, they are also functional. CyberKongz isn’t the only series to give its NFTs utility through gamification; Cool Cats’ new collectible, Cool Pets, will enable holders to earn Gold, an in-game token. To get GOLD, the user must have MILK, Cool Cats will soon generate MILK every day.

In addition to gamification, other projects have found that community-collectibility is as valuable as utility.

community orientation, community autonomy

Built within the Treasure.lol universe, SmolBrains, created by the Treasure DAO, is the epitome of grassroots projects. The project is an NFT game developed on the Arbitrum network, and its main PFP changes dynamically.