Banking involvement in the metaverse will enable exponential growth of the ‘creative economy.’ In order to prepare for the impending metaverse acceleration, financial institutions must acquire new people and embrace new technology and prepare for further democratization of finance.
Digitization and the widespread use of cashless finance already offer a low-cost option to efficiently expand any financial business, but the metaverse will go much farther.
The development of the metaverse will lead to the formation of a new virtual environment in which individuals will be able to engage in creative interaction, entertainment and work. And, while financial transactions will be in demand there as well as in the real world, customers will want them to be free of territorial and other physical limitations.
The metaverse, according to Citibank experts, will become the next generation of the internet, or Web 3.0. Users will have access to a wide range of services, such as commerce, art, media, advertising, healthcare and social cooperation. It will be available on desktops, gaming consoles, cellphones and virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) devices.
Leveraging this broad market, the total addressable potential for the metaverse is projected to be between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030, with an estimated five billion metaverse users.