SoftBank leads a $93 million investment in The Sandbox, with the founder positioning it as a challenger to the dominance of big corporations in the metaverse.

After Facebook's pledge to advance the metaverse and rebranding to Meta, whether its actual connection to the cryptocurrency world is significant or not, it has become a hot topic. Decentraland's MANA and The Sandbox's SAND, both focusing on virtual worlds, have seen a significant surge. The Sandbox even announced on November 2nd that it has secured a $93 million investment led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2.

About The Sandbox

The Sandbox was developed by Pixowl in 2012 as a mobile game, later expanding to a desktop version on Steam. In 2018, Hong Kong game developer Animoca Brands acquired The Sandbox for $4.875 million and introduced a blockchain version, allowing players to create and trade in-game assets as NFTs. Players can also buy and sell in-game land, setting numerous high-value records in the past. In 2019, renowned Japanese game developer Square Enix led a $2 million investment, followed by SoftBank's funding in 2021. Reports suggest that Animoca Brands holds 22% of the total SAND tokens.

CEO and Co-founder Sebastien Borget stated:

We are building an open metaverse and positioning The Sandbox to counter the tech giants trying to monopolize the metaverse, providing user-centric choices.

About SAND

SAND saw a 68% increase in the 24 hours prior to the deadline, with a price of 2.8 and a market ranking of 63, making it the highest-gaining token among the top 100 cryptocurrencies. According to CoinMarketCap, the top two tokens in the metaverse category are Axie Infinity AXS, which allows players to earn while playing, and Decentraland MANA, an earlier virtual 3D environment where many players engage.

The functionality of SAND tokens includes:

• In-game currency for buying and selling assets and paying for services
• Governance
• Staking
• Revenue sharing
• Supporting foundation development