The avalanche of launches has come despite an embarrassing lack of traction for many early offerings in the metaverse, a futuristic immersive version of the internet enabled by virtual and augmented reality., which was so enamoured by the concept that it changed its name from Facebook Inc. to “reflect its focus on building the metaverse,” has started to lay off workers associated with the project.
“It has always been our view that the metaverse is a multitrillion dollar, multi-decade opportunity. There was no scenario in which we didn’t see a flood of other ETFs coming to market.”In METV’s wake, a further 11 metaverse ETFs launched globally in the fourth quarter of 2021 alone, according to Morningstar’s database; 23 more have seen the light of day this year.Article content
Net flows to metaverse ETFs totalled US$2.6 billion between October 2021 and February of this year, according to Morningstar. However, since then, they have turned negative, with US$111 million being withdrawn. However, Dina Ting, head of global index portfolio management at Franklin Templeton, which launched a metaverse ETF in September, believes its real potential lies in combining the digital and real worlds as an aide to industry, something we are “really at the cusp of.”A company planning to build a new product could, for example, use virtual reality to perfect its manufacturing plan.
Omar Moufti, product strategist for thematic and sector ETFs at BlackRock Inc., which unveiled its debut metaverse ETF this month, was even more enthusiastic, saying: “We see the metaverse as the next leap forward in global communication and connectivity.”