Metaverse economy could hit $13 trillion by 2030

Since Facebook rebranded as Meta last year, the concept of the Metaverse has taken a giant stride, with firms, including many in financial services, scrambling to understand how the impending move to a more virtual world will impact the economy and their business.

In a 186 page report, called ‘Metaverse and Money, Decrypting the Future‘, Citi has dived into the subject, looking at everything from in-game tokens, to crypto, stablecoins, CBDCs and fiat currency.

A device-agnostic Metaverse that involves use cases such as commerce, art, media, advertising, healthcare and social collaboration could see a total addressable market of between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030, estimates the report.

This huge market will require a different way of looking at money, says Citi: « 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. »