• Zilliqa is now the first layer-1 protocol to launch its highly immersive XR metaverse platform Metapolis.
• ZIL token saw an 80 percent price surge with the announcement, higher than Solana’s 10 percent surge following integration with OpenSea.

Late last year, Zilliqa (ZIL) announced its plans to venture into the metaverse through its metaverse-as-a-service (MaaS) platform, Metapolis. The layer-one blockchain launched the same on Saturday, making history as the first of its kind to do so. The Miami event not only marketed the platform but also brought with it good tidings for the price of its native token. Events after that have also formed the basis for comparison between Zilliqa and one of the top ten cryptocurrencies, Solana (SOL). 

Thursday particularly saw Zilliqa leading the crypto market with an 80 percent surge over 24 hours. This was also part of a 270 percent weekly price hike fueled by the same news.

Zilliqa launches Metapolis metaverse platform

Uniquely, Zilliqa’s metaverse will feature both virtual realities (VR) and augmented reality (AR), in a blend known as extended reality (XR). According to Sandra Helou, Zilliqa head of metaverse and NFT, Metapolis will utilize blockchain applications such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). These will enable brands and enterprises to develop digital products and economies, expanding their coverage, and resultantly their income.

On the other hand, Solana recently made headlines after integrating its NFTs into OpenSea, fueling a comparably lower 10 percent hike in the price of SOL. The move is intended to boost the performance of OpenSea which has recently declined. Since February 2022, the largest NFT marketplace has seen a drop in the number of daily sales and users from Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. And for the first time in months, the platform’s daily trading volume fell below $100M in March. Powering Solana’s NFTs is therefore considered a solution in addition to welcoming competition seeing as Solana also hosts several platforms.

At press time, SOL was exchanging hands at $133.37, 2.6 percent down in the past 24 hours. The price is, however, one of its highest since early February. ZIL was trading at $0.139, down 8.5 percent in the past day.

Of note, Zilliqa was one of the cryptocurrencies endorsed by crypto YouTuber Lark Davis in early February. The network exuded high growth in the number of transactions and total transaction fees. Zilliqa has since rallied from the 126th rank by crypto market cap to 69th.

Read More: Crypto analyst lists the top 7 crypto assets to watch in 2022

Taken with a pinch of salt

And even though this immersion in the digital world has brought on countless opportunities and possibilities, there still lingers the question of its actual existence. Critics like ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have dismissed it as a marketing buzzword.

Meanwhile, others continue to voice fears of potential downsides such as aggravating inequalities and narrowing the distinction between reality and virtual concepts. Still, the likes of Bill Gates have it that the metaverse is set to become a globally endorsed reality within the next three years.