Citi Sees the Metaverse to Reach $8 Trillion to $13 Trillion by 2030
Citi, a leading American multinational investment bank, expects the metaverse to be worth between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030. Despite the metaverse concept being around for a few decades, interest in the virtual world gained steam at the end of 2021 based on the exponential growth of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In accordance with a report dubbed “Metaverse and Money, Decrypting the Future,” Citi believes that metaverse users will have grown to 5 billion by 2030. Per the study: “Users should increasingly be able to access a host of use cases, including commerce, art, media, advertising, healthcare, and social collaboration. A device-agnostic metaverse would be accessible via personal computers, game consoles, and smartphones, resulting in a large ecosystem.” As the next iteration of the internet or Web3, Citi expects the metaverse to move away from the confines of a video game played on a virtual reality (VR) headset to become an “Open Metaverse” that will be owned and governed by a community. Furthermore, the metaverse will consist of a freely interoperable version, which prompts privacy by design. Infrastructural investments required Citi noted that for the metaverse to get to the speculated market level, it will require significant infrastructural developments and investments. Per the report: “The content