HSBC has announced its recent partnership with mega metaverse member The Sandbox for an epic virtual collaboration. The banking giant claims it wishes to merge with e-sports and gaming fans. This will be the first global bank to join The Sandbox metaverse. 

The bank’s plan is to buy a portion of land on The Sandbox metaverse to engage with gaming, sports, and e-sports fans. 

Suresh Balaji, chief marketing officer at HSBC Asia-Pacific, says he foresees “great potential in creating new experiences through emerging platforms.” 

At this time, the details of the plans are a bit faint as more information is needed to fully immerse the imagination of the public. The Sandbox released a blog post, provoking much enthusiasm for metaverse and gaming fans. For now, we are left with a pixelated image of a plot of land and an HSBC-branded rugby stadium. 

The British bank may be the first financial service provider to join, but the partnership itself can potentially start a breeding ground for future, innovative Web3 proponents to ride the virtual wave. 

The partnership shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering the esteem and reputation that The Sandbox offers in the business world. The Sandbox has gained support from other global brands like Snoop Dogg, Adidas, The Walking Dead, Gucci, and Warner Music. And it’s not only in sandboxes that corporate leaders are dipping their toes in, but just recently, JPMorgan purchased a plot of land in the other well-known VR world, Decentraland. 

The metaverse has opened its doors to an array of savvy developers wishing to explore the vast world of VR. Recently, fashion NFTs have joined the party, giving fashion designers free reign to commercialize their creations. 

Other projects that give The Sandbox a proverbial “run for their money” include the Shiba Inu virtual real estate venture Shiba Land. With no association with the Shiba Inu coin, the Shiba Land team offers three membership tiers to those who wish to purchase land and participate in their virtual marketplace. 

This has caused some raised eyebrows for Sandbox fans, however. Can Shiba Land outpace the current king of metaverse gaming?  

Analysts express an extremely bullish outlook for the Shiba Inu metaverse community. Similarly, this may entail some stiff competition for more well-known metaverse projects like Axie Infinity and Decentraland. In order for users to bid on property, holders will need to acquire LEASH tokens. In essence, LEASH and BONE will act as primary tokens in the Shiba Land ecosystem.  

Retail investors and institutions have poured massive funds into virtual land developments. And now with world banks joining the arena, the metaverse is bound to experience some colossal growth in the coming years. According to PwC’s Seeing is Believing, the metaverse market growth is expected to grow to $1.5 trillion by 2030.