IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finana/v86y2023ics1057521923000765.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The illusion of the metaverse and meta-economy

Author

Listed:
  • Vidal-Tomás, David

Abstract

This paper provides (i) a review of the existing literature on the metaverse and (ii) an empirical assessment of the current state of the Web3 meta-economy, with the focus on economic governance and metaverse commerce. We have analysed the entire Web3 metaverse niche, i.e. both the 196 available metaverse fungible tokens and all the non-fungible token (NFT) transactions belonging to the metaverse marketplace. Our results showed that economic governance is based on metaverse tokens that cannot be defined as reliable virtual currencies due to their explosive behaviour, negative performance, and higher volatility compared to traditional alternatives. Paradoxically, fiat currencies and stablecoins could be more appropriate candidates for the payment infrastructure. Moreover, we also observed that NFT prices are affected by the cryptocurrency market, which highlights the risk of metaverse commerce. For future research, developers and scholars must assess the different alternatives and infrastructures that can make the metaverse a persistent reality with a proper virtual economy. However, at present, it seems that the hype has run far ahead of reality.

Suggested Citation

  • Vidal-Tomás, David, 2023. "The illusion of the metaverse and meta-economy," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:86:y:2023:i:c:s1057521923000765
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2023.102560
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521923000765
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.irfa.2023.102560?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter C. B. Phillips & Shuping Shi & Jun Yu, 2015. "Testing For Multiple Bubbles: Historical Episodes Of Exuberance And Collapse In The S&P 500," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1043-1078, November.
    2. Chalmers, Dominic & Fisch, Christian & Matthews, Russell & Quinn, William & Recker, Jan, 2022. "Beyond the bubble: Will NFTs and digital proof of ownership empower creative industry entrepreneurs?," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    3. Paul P. Momtaz, 2021. "The Pricing and Performance of Cryptocurrency," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4-5), pages 367-380, March.
    4. Rua, António & Nunes, Luís C., 2009. "International comovement of stock market returns: A wavelet analysis," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 632-639, September.
    5. Vidal-Tomás, David, 2022. "The new crypto niche: NFTs, play-to-earn, and metaverse tokens," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    6. Vidal-Tomás, David, 2022. "Which cryptocurrency data sources should scholars use?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    7. Paul P. Momtaz, 2021. "CEO emotions and firm valuation in initial coin offerings: An artificial emotional intelligence approach," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 558-578, March.
    8. Robert Engle, 2004. "Risk and Volatility: Econometric Models and Financial Practice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 405-420, June.
    9. Patton, Andrew J., 2011. "Volatility forecast comparison using imperfect volatility proxies," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 160(1), pages 246-256, January.
    10. Vidal-Tomás, David, 2021. "The entry and exit dynamics of the cryptocurrency market," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    11. Matthieu Nadini & Laura Alessandretti & Flavio Di Giacinto & Mauro Martino & Luca Maria Aiello & Andrea Baronchelli, 2021. "Mapping the NFT revolution: market trends, trade networks and visual features," Papers 2106.00647, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2021.
    12. Koopman, Siem Jan & Jungbacker, Borus & Hol, Eugenie, 2005. "Forecasting daily variability of the S&P 100 stock index using historical, realised and implied volatility measurements," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 445-475, June.
    13. Sirio Aramonteand & Wenqian Huang & Andreas Schrimpf, 2021. "DeFi risks and the decentralisation illusion," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, December.
    14. Hong Bao & David Roubaud, 2022. "Non-Fungible Token: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-9, May.
    15. Edward Castronova, 2001. "Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier," CESifo Working Paper Series 618, CESifo.
    16. Wei, Wang Chun, 2018. "Liquidity and market efficiency in cryptocurrencies," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 21-24.
    17. Turiel, Jeremy D. & Aste, Tomaso, 2022. "Heterogeneous criticality in high frequency finance: a phase transition in flash crashes," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113892, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Andres M Belaza & Jan Ryckebusch & Koen Schoors & Luis E C Rocha & Benjamin Vandermarliere, 2020. "On the connection between real-world circumstances and online player behaviour: The case of EVE Online," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(10), pages 1-15, October.
    19. Nguyen, Jeremy K., 2022. "Racial discrimination in non-fungible token (NFT) prices? CryptoPunk sales and skin tone," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    20. Peter C. B. Phillips & Shuping Shi & Jun Yu, 2015. "Testing For Multiple Bubbles: Historical Episodes Of Exuberance And Collapse In The S&P 500," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 56, pages 1043-1078, November.
    21. Davidson, Paul, 1972. "Money and the Real World," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 82(325), pages 101-115, March.
    22. Corbet, Shaen & Lucey, Brian & Urquhart, Andrew & Yarovaya, Larisa, 2019. "Cryptocurrencies as a financial asset: A systematic analysis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 182-199.
    23. Gençay, Ramazan & Gençay, Ramazan & Selçuk, Faruk & Whitcher, Brandon J., 2001. "An Introduction to Wavelets and Other Filtering Methods in Finance and Economics," Elsevier Monographs, Elsevier, edition 1, number 9780122796708.
    24. Guillermo Angeris & Hsien-Tang Kao & Rei Chiang & Charlie Noyes & Tarun Chitra, 2019. "An analysis of Uniswap markets," Papers 1911.03380, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2021.
    25. Dirk G. Baur & Thomas Dimpfl, 2021. "The volatility of Bitcoin and its role as a medium of exchange and a store of value," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(5), pages 2663-2683, November.
    26. Antonio Briola & David Vidal-Tom'as & Yuanrong Wang & Tomaso Aste, 2022. "Anatomy of a Stablecoin's failure: the Terra-Luna case," Papers 2207.13914, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2022.
    27. White, Lawrence H, 1984. "Competitive Payments Systems and the Unit of Account," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 699-712, September.
    28. Kevin Hoefman & Aaron Bramson & Koen Schoors & Jan Ryckebusch, 2018. "The impact of functional and social value on the price of goods," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-12, November.
    29. Jeremy Turiel & Tomaso Aste, 2021. "Heterogenous criticality in high frequency finance: a phase transition in flash crashes," Papers 2110.13701, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    30. Raphael Auer & Cyril Monnet & Hyun Song Shin, 2021. "Permissioned Distributed Ledgers and the Governance of Money," Diskussionsschriften dp2101, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    31. Paul P. Momtaz, 2022. "Some Very Simple Economics of Web3 and the Metaverse," FinTech, MDPI, vol. 1(3), pages 1-10, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Robertas Damaševičius, 2023. "From E-commerce to V-commerce: Understanding the Impact of Virtual Reality and Metaverse on Economic Activities," Journal of Information Economics, Anser Press, vol. 1(3), pages 55-79, October.
    2. Bakhtiar, Tiam & Luo, Xiaojun & Adelopo, Ismail, 2023. "Network effects and store-of-value features in the cryptocurrency market," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. Aysan, Ahmet Faruk & Batten, Jonathan A. & Gozgor, Giray & Khalfaoui, Rabeh & Nanaeva, Zhamal, 2023. "Twitter matters for metaverse stocks amid economic uncertainty," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    4. Vidal-Tomás, David & Briola, Antonio & Aste, Tomaso, 2023. "FTX's downfall and Binance's consolidation: the fragility of centralised digital finance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119902, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vidal-Tomás, David, 2022. "The new crypto niche: NFTs, play-to-earn, and metaverse tokens," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    2. Aurelio F. Bariviera & Ignasi Merediz‐Solà, 2021. "Where Do We Stand In Cryptocurrencies Economic Research? A Survey Based On Hybrid Analysis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 377-407, April.
    3. Vidal-Tomás, David & Briola, Antonio & Aste, Tomaso, 2023. "FTX's downfall and Binance's consolidation: the fragility of centralised digital finance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119902, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Vidal-Tomás, David, 2021. "The entry and exit dynamics of the cryptocurrency market," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    5. Hanna Halaburda & Guillaume Haeringer & Joshua Gans & Neil Gandal, 2022. "The Microeconomics of Cryptocurrencies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 971-1013, September.
    6. Şoiman, Florentina & Dumas, Jean-Guillaume & Jimenez-Garces, Sonia, 2023. "What drives DeFi market returns?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    7. Cevik, Emrah Ismail & Gunay, Samet & Zafar, Muhammad Wasif & Destek, Mehmet Akif & Bugan, Mehmet Fatih & Tuna, Fatih, 2022. "The impact of digital finance on the natural resource market: Evidence from DeFi, oil, and gold," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Almeida, José & Gonçalves, Tiago Cruz, 2023. "A systematic literature review of investor behavior in the cryptocurrency markets," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    9. Li, Yi & Lucey, Brian & Urquhart, Andrew, 2023. "Can altcoins act as hedges or safe-havens for Bitcoin?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    10. Fan Fang & Carmine Ventre & Michail Basios & Leslie Kanthan & David Martinez-Rego & Fan Wu & Lingbo Li, 2022. "Cryptocurrency trading: a comprehensive survey," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-59, December.
    11. Arthur A. B. Pessa & Matjaz Perc & Haroldo V. Ribeiro, 2023. "Age and market capitalization drive large price variations of cryptocurrencies," Papers 2302.12319, arXiv.org.
    12. Roy, Archi & Soni, Anchal & Deb, Soudeep, 2023. "A wavelet-based methodology to compare the impact of pandemic versus Russia–Ukraine conflict on crude oil sector and its interconnectedness with other energy and non-energy markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    13. Maghyereh, Aktham & Abdoh, Hussein & Awartani, Basel, 2022. "Have returns and volatilities for financial assets responded to implied volatility during the COVID-19 pandemic?," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    14. Paul P. Momtaz, 2022. "Some Very Simple Economics of Web3 and the Metaverse," FinTech, MDPI, vol. 1(3), pages 1-10, July.
    15. Mudassar Hasan & Muhammad Abubakr Naeem & Muhammad Arif & Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad & Xuan Vinh Vo, 2022. "Liquidity connectedness in cryptocurrency market," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-25, December.
    16. Gunay, Samet & Kaskaloglu, Kerem, 2022. "Does utilizing smart contracts induce a financial connectedness between Ethereum and non-fungible tokens?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    17. Rami Alkhudary & Bertrand Belvaux & Nathalie Guibert, 2023. "Understanding non-fungible tokens (NFTs): insights on consumption practices and a research agenda," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 321-336, June.
    18. Aloosh, Arash & Ouzan, Samuel & Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain, 2022. "Bubbles across Meme Stocks and Cryptocurrencies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    19. Ghosh, Indranil & Alfaro-Cortés, Esteban & Gámez, Matías & García-Rubio, Noelia, 2023. "Prediction and interpretation of daily NFT and DeFi prices dynamics: Inspection through ensemble machine learning & XAI," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    20. Wang, Xiao-Qing & Wu, Tong & Zhong, Huaming & Su, Chi-Wei, 2023. "Bubble behaviors in nickel price: What roles do geopolitical risk and speculation play?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Metaverse; Metaverse economy; Meta-economy; Digital economy; Non-fungible token; Cryptocurrency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G40 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:86:y:2023:i:c:s1057521923000765. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620166 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.