British Investment Bank HSBC Joins Metaverse via Sandbox, Animoca Brands Partnership

The British multinational investment bank and financial services holding company, HSBC, has revealed it has partnered with the blockchain virtual gaming platform The Sandbox. According to the platform’s parent company, Animoca Brands, HSBC is the first global financial services provider to enter The Sandbox metaverse.

HSBC Steps Into the Metaverse

Over the last 12 months, The Sandbox has attracted a great number of businesses and celebrities to the blockchain virtual gaming platform. For instance, The Sandbox has enticed Snoop Dogg, Deadmau5, Atari, The Care Bears, The Smurfs, Gucci, Warner Music Group, Adidas, PWC Hong Kong, Samsung, Square Enix, Ubisoft, and more.

On Wednesday, Animoca Brands and the British bank HSBC announced the companies have inked a partnership deal and that the global financial services provider will engage with other finance providers and sports communities within The Sandbox metaverse.

“The groundbreaking partnership between The Sandbox and HSBC will see the global financial services provider acquire a plot of LAND, virtual real estate in The Sandbox metaverse, which will be developed to engage and connect with sports, esports, and gaming enthusiasts,” the announcement on Wednesday notes.

The press release highlights a PWC report that estimates the metaverse market will grow from $45.4 billion to $1.5 trillion by 2030. The financial institution HSBC sees significant potential in the metaverse and Web3 in the future.

“The metaverse is how people will experience Web3, the next generation of the Internet – using immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and extended reality,” the chief marketing officer at HSBC Asia-Pacific, Suresh Balaji, said in a statement. The HSBC executive added:

At HSBC, we see great potential to create new experiences through emerging platforms, opening up a world of opportunity for our current and future customers and for the communities we serve.

Native Token SAND Gathers 336% Against the U.S. Dollar in 12 Months

The Sandbox blockchain metaverse has seen enormous growth during the last year, and according to nonfungible.com’s NFT market tracker, The Sandbox is the third largest project in the last seven days in terms of sales, with $7.6 million in weekly volume. Furthermore, the project’s native token SAND has gained 336.2% year-to-date, according to today’s market statistics.

At the time of writing, SAND’s $3.3 billion market capitalization represents 0.18% of the crypto economy’s $1.86 trillion valuation. Following the Animoca Brands and HSBC partnership announcement, SAND gained over 9% against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday.