A longtime crypto bull and influencer names 3 metaverse tokens to watch in 2022 as people

Metaverse momentum has grown in late 2021 as companies ramp up investments in virtual worlds.
But even cryptocurrency believers are split about the budding technology’s future.
The crypto influencer David Gokhshtein shared his three favorite metaverse tokens to watch.

Technology fanatics may remember where they were when Apple unveiled the original iPhone in 2007. In hindsight, that event was a watershed moment that changed the course of history. Without the iPhone, it’s hard to imagine how different the world of consumer technology would look today.

In a few decades, the same may be said of the metaverse — a 3D version of the internet that users can enter and explore. Though the concept has been around for years, Facebook’s decision to rebrand as Meta Platforms moved the metaverse into the mainstream, much like Apple’s release of the iPhone made smartphones a must-have gadget.

But it’s also possible that the metaverse will go down in history as this decade’s version of 3D televisions, which failed to garner widespread interest and were quickly forgotten.

“It could be — I guess it’s a harsh way of saying it — it could be kind of the ‘flying-cars’ promise of the ’60s,” Brian Mosoff, the CEO of Ether Capital, recently told Insider, citing a futuristic technology that proved unrealistic.

Mosoff said he was “a little bearish” on the metaverse, even though many virtual worlds run on the ethereum blockchain, which his firm adores. Metaverse proponents promise that in the future, the metaverse will change how humans work, play, and interact. But Mosoff has his doubts that the technology will live up to the immense hype and become more than a fad.

“As someone who’s spent a fair amount of time playing with an Oculus VR headset during COVID, I’m not sure what the stickiness is yet of the metaverse,” Mosoff said. “I don’t see people strapping things to their head to interact with people, to have their daily chitchat about, you know, their coffee or their office meeting.”

By contrast, David Gokhshtein, a longtime cryptocurrency believer and influencer who runs Gokhshtein Media, believes in the metaverse. He thinks that, in time, virtual worlds will be a place where people shop and socialize — and in many ways, they already are.

“I don’t think it dies down just because it’s an escape for a lot of people,” Gokhshtein said. “With everything that’s gone on globally with this pandemic, people turn to social media to go ahead and speak because restrictions are everywhere.

“You’re staying at home, or you’re working remote, and there’s, you know, what are you going to do, speak to your wall? No, you’re going to social media, and you start talking. First, it started with Clubhouse. Then, you have Twitter Spaces. Now, you have the metaverse.”

The need to connect with others as the coronavirus continues to spread has driven people to host parties on the metaverse, Gokhshtein said. Social distancing isn’t required there.

“I see it daily: People are messaging people or tweeting it out saying, ‘Hey, I got an event that I’m throwing on metaverse: Anybody want to come?'” Gokhshtein said. “So now, you have people just going, and it has nothing to do with even money. People are just going and just having a good time in the metaverse.”

The metaverse is also an “untapped” opportunity where businesses can buy virtual land, set up virtual stores, and build real-life loyalty with their customers, Gokhshtein said.

“You’ll have popular name brands — let’s say, like Nike, Adidas — that will build stores inside the metaverse to go ahead and sell their products,” Gokhshtein said. “Because I feel, from a psychological standpoint, people will get super addicted to the metaverse and spend hours on it. People will go ahead and spend their time in the metaverse. There’s a perfect opportunity for companies to come in and advertise.”

3 metaverse cryptos to watch in 2022

Like it or not, the metaverse — and cryptocurrencies tied to it — isn’t likely to vanish overnight.

Gokhshtein said he thought the three metaverse tokens below stood out among their peers. These altcoins include both established leaders in the nascent space and promising up-and-comers. The following list has each token’s symbol, market capitalization, use case, context about its 2021 journey, and commentary from Gokhshtein.