In the last year, the trend has literally exploded Metaverso, a macro-theme that arouses the curiosity of more and more people. It is a three-dimensional space that is accessed through 3D viewers, a virtual environment in which people can create avatars, move, interact, work, attend conferences, play, travel and much more.
If until some time ago the current futuristic vision of the internet was just a romantic fantasy, today it is becoming reality and many companies are working and investing in projects that have to do with the Metaverse.
For example, the founder of Facebook strongly believes in the ambitious Metaverse project so much that he changed the name of his company to “Meta”. In fact, according to Mark Zuckerberg “the Metaverse is the successor to the mobile internet, an internet where you experience it not just watch it”.
When Facebook changed its name to Meta last year, some observers interpreted the move as a statement by the company to dominate the industry or even take ownership of the Metaverse. Some doubts arose on the matter, with the Meta stock which has lost more than 67% since the beginning of the year.
First European ETF on the Metaverse
Despite everything, within a short time the phenomenon of the Metaverse has become one of the investment themes that most excite investors. Precisely to give investors the opportunity to invest in this megatrend, in March this year ETC Group and HANetf, the white label platform of UCITS ETFs, launched the first metaverse ETF in Europe.
In detail, we are talking aboutETC Group Global Metaverse UCITS ETF, instrument recently rebalanced.
Between companies removed from the index we find the much discussed Twitterfollowing its delisting from the New York Stock Exchange following its takeover by Elon Musk.
In its place, some companies have been included, such as Etsya very popular digital marketplace in the United States – and beyond – where artists can sell art and handcrafted products directly to consumers.
Metaverse, a rapidly expanding market
During the rebalancing, Tom Rogers – Head of Research di ETC Group, highlighted how the Metaverse sector spans several sub-sectors and continues to have strong growth potential. From this point of view, the latest estimates “they see the industry as a whole to be worth $13 trillion by 2030“.
But Meta is not the Metaverso. The latter is not based on the performance of a single stock, but is a investment theme that involves multiple areas of the technology sectorthe evolution of which requires the development of a wide range of factors.
We should therefore not consider the Metaverse as an investment trend that has already faded, in fact, the technology on which the Metaverse is based involves the development of a wide range of sectors, from smart manufacturing to gaming, VR to augmented reality, 5G to blockchain-based payments to digital identity and more. From this point of view, investing in a single company not only exposes the investor to a risk of concentration, but also means not having access to the entire sector in all its components.
For these reasons, approach the Metaverse through a diversified thematic ETF it allows investors to get exposure to those companies and sectors that profit the most from the expansion of this investment theme and avoid betting on only a few companies.