The Sandbox proved that metaverse is not dead: the SAND token jumped 115% last month. Will it fall in February

The Sandbox’s metaverse token (SAND) has experienced rapid growth since the beginning of 2023 and doesn’t look like it’s going to stop anytime soon. The company continues to enter into new partnerships and make itself known. At the same time, events in the crypto market may develop differently, even contrary to previous scenarios. There is a risk that the SAND price may decline under certain conditions.

Why did SAND make the breakthrough?

The Sandbox is an Ethereum-based virtual world where players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences. Players can interact with each other, complete in-game tasks, and earn income by selling in-game items on The Sandbox Market. SAND serves as an in-game token that can be used to purchase items, reward other players, and interact in the metaverse.

At the end of 2022, the platform’s native token, SAND, was trading between $0.38 and $0.4. In 2023, however, the price jumped by $0.8, trying to approach $1 at its peaks, with a market capitalization of $1.2 billion.

In early January, The Sandbox announced an upcoming update to the Game Maker platform, which allows users to develop, test, and share experiences, such as games, in the ecosystem. The update will add multiplayer gameplay, improved lighting and visual effects, and video and audio streaming.

Then the company joined forces with record label Warner Music Group (WMG), which represents artists such as Ed Sheeran, Green Day, and others. WMG announced a Spinning Record release party on the meta-universe platform, where they played music from the winners of the World’s Biggest Demo Drops contest during the event. Recall that The Sandbox has long partnered with Snoop Dogg, Gucci, Tim, Atari, HSBC, and other famous brands and celebrities.

Also, CryptoDATA aggregator WhaleStats named SAND the most useful virtual currency among the top 100 ETH whales.

JUST IN: $SAND @TheSandboxGame once again a MOST USED smart contract among top 100 #ETH whales in 24hrs 🐳

Check the top 100 whales here: https://t.co/N5qqsCAH8j

(and hodl $BBW to see data for the top 5000!)#SAND #whalestats #babywhale #BBW pic.twitter.com/FABH9f6nbQ

— WhaleStats (tracking crypto whales) (@WhaleStats) January 21, 2023

In February, Saudi Arabia publicly announced its intentions to develop its presence in the metaverse through a partnership with The Sandbox. Sebastian Borge, co-founder and chief operating officer of The Sandbox, wrote that a memorandum of understanding is in place with the Saudi Arabian Digital Government Authority (DGA) to research, advise, and support each other in developing the metaverse.

Netflix and Sandbox VR have also penned a deal to create a fully immersive virtual reality experience based on the popular Squid Game series. The release is expected in late 2023.

What do you get when you cross Netflix’s most groundbreaking series with the world’s most advanced virtual reality? We’ll give you a hint… 🦑🚦🦾 Squid Game x Sandbox VR is happening later this year!https://t.co/gfSYN2bVvu

— Sandbox VR (@SandboxVR) February 8, 2023

Glassnode has reported that nearly 100 million inflows into exchanges have been observed for The Sandbox in recent days, possibly in anticipation of the upcoming token unlock event.

Three reasons why the price of SAND may go down

1. SAND tokens will be unlocked on February 14. There will be 348 million tokens on the market, which will be distributed among seed and strategic investors. The unlocking will increase the current supply of 1.5 billion SAND by 23%. The previous unlock triggered a 20% drop in the SAND price. On the other hand, the market now tends to see tokens rising in price after unlocking.
2. Market makers have a strong influence on the market, stimulating greed in buyers. However, now there is a wave of correction, and prices have begun to fall. SAND has become a little cheaper, too. A second wave of correction is possible in the near future.
3. According to Santiment, the SAND token has been stagnant for weeks, rapidly reducing network activity. Now the whales have started to move. But once they’re done, a short drop in price is possible. This could then be a good opportunity to get into a SAND position. There could be bad news before the dump starts. 

The Sandbox vs. Decentraland

The Sandbox’s main competitor, Decentraland, is also off to a great start in 2023. The MANA platform token has doubled in value, from about $0.4 at the end of last year to $0.74 as of February 9. The maximum price this year was $0.83. Market capitalization reached $1.3 billion.

Decentraland is a decentralized virtual reality platform that consists of 90,601 land areas. In this metaverse, users can create, use, and monetize content. Decentraland’s virtual real estate and usernames represent NFTs that can be purchased in MANA cryptocurrency based on the Ethereum blockchain.

The behavior of The Sandbox and Decentraland tokens, their price, and even the market capitalization of the projects are very similar. Which one is better? It is impossible to answer this question unambiguously. 

Accessibility, game focus, and a detailed roadmap put The Sandbox in a better light. On the other hand, Decentraland is better proven and has more experienced and decentralized platforms.

According to The Sandbox’s technical price analysis, SAND could have a minimum value of $1.08 and a maximum of $1.26. Gov Capital data, on the other hand, suggests that the coins will get cheaper. 

CoinsKid predicted that MANA could reach $0.9792 by November 2023. And according to Gov Capital, MANA could rise to $2.0 by the end of this year.

You have not selected any currency to display