Metaverse will become a $1 trillion market opportunity, says JP Morgan

JP Morgan Chase has become the first bank in the world to set up shop in the metaverse. Its new office is located in the Metajuku Mall in Decentraland, a popular platform for buying real estate in the digital realm, Fortune reported.  

Even as technology giants such as Meta and Microsoft are figuring out ways in which they want to build up their versions of the metaverse, real estate in other metaverse platforms are selling like hotcakes. 2021 was the best year in terms of sales valuation for metaverse so far and the numbers are expected to double in 2022. Interestingly, this is all playing out on platforms like Decentraland and Sandbox and JP Morgan wants in. 

A potential market of trillion-dollars a year 

About six months ago, JP Morgan flipped its stance about cryptocurrencies and gave its clients the opportunity to dive into crypto products. The company's outlook has definitely broadened as it is now investing in the metaverse, much ahead of its peers. 

Its blockchain research arm Onyx released a report about the metaverse recently calling it a market that could potentially generate a trillion dollars in revenues every year. This is not really surprising given the rush we have seen of brands such as Adidas, Nike, Disney, Walmart and many more have their plans about being a part of the metaverse. 

The booming interest in the metaverse is evident in the fact that the piece of digital land where JP Morgan opened its bank was bought by a developer last year for $913,000. The Mall will see events being organized to pull in the crowds and JP Morgan will look to extend its services of credit, mortgages, and rental agreements to the digital realm as well. 

This might sound like an oversell but actually isn't when you consider that last month, U.S.-based accounting firm Prager Metis opened a three-story office in the Decentraland as well to address the financial and tax compliance concerns of its clients.

It is not just JP Morgan that thinks highly of the metaverse. Its rival bank, Goldman Sachs has pegged that the metaverse market will grow to $8 trillion, Fortune reported. It is hardly a surprise then that Mark Zuckerberg's Meta is willing to lose billions now to cement its place in the metaverse.