A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. But these days, who cares. The 8th sea – the virtual ocean – seems to be teeming with some very daring crypto seafarers. They don’t even need to check the weather forecast anymore.
Wild things are happening in the deep blue virtual waters. From virtual yachts to ocean conservation, crypto isn’t just keeping to dry land. Keep your crypto-hand steady because this is what you could be buying while navigating the high seas.
Paying for your yacht with crypto
Crypto payments for luxury items are not uncommon. Different car companies have been accepting Bitcoin payments for a while.
However, an Italian 170ft superyacht has gone on sale in a global first, and the prospective buyer can pay in crypto. Not only are major coins accepted, but you can even put up an NFT.
It’s not just any NFTs, however. With a price tag of $10 million, top-tier NFT collections are needed. These include the likes of CryptoPunks of BAYC Apes.
Should the buyer go this NFT-route, it would make it the largest-ever yacht bought with NFTs — another crypto first.
In addition, the owner doesn’t have to just keep the yacht to themselves. They have the option to hire it out for crypto or NFTs at $196,000 per week.
Virtual yacht sells for $650,000
It’s not only physical yachts that are selling out for crypto. The Metaflower NFT Super Mega Yacht only exists in the metaverse.
Sold for 149 ETH ($591,500), the vessel is a luxury boat in The Sandbox – a metaverse video game. Inside, players can develop virtual land. The Sandbox has partnerships with Adidas, Atari, Nifty Gateway, Gemini, and rapper Snoop Dogg, among others.
The superyacht was sold by metaverse real estate firm Republic Realm. The transaction makes the ‘boat’ the most expensive NFT asset ever sold in a video game. Currently, the ‘realm’ has holdings in 19 metaverse platforms and owns over 2,500 NFTs.
Island living
You have a virtual superyacht. So how about an island to crash it into? Well lucky for you, Republic Realm is the developer of an archipelago called Fantasy Islands.
Like Decentraland, this world allows you to buy up private land to kit out and “live” as you like. It is a master-plan community made up of 100 private islands, each an NFT.
The NFT land and villa were sold together. The house-and-land packages were snapped up in under 24 hours. Today, the floor price for a Fantasy Island is nearly $300,000.
This makes the virtual island the same price as an actual average home in the U.S. But imagine owning virtual property in a rising market with no annoying problems like storm damage or spider infestations? It is a fantasy.
Although it doesn’t end at islands and yachts, unsurprisingly, Fantasy Islands residents can also buy sea toys. The Fantasy Collection is a suite of luxury NFTs designed for use in The Sandbox. There are private islands, jet skis, and speedboats. There’s access to a members-only beach club and the Fantasy Marina.
The Fantasy Collection and the Fantasy Islands together have a market cap of over $30 million.
Yacht on a clean sea
When it comes to crypto and the ocean, it’s not all NFT toys. Some seriously decent crypto projects exist to clean up the actual oceans.
Earlier this year, blockchain eco-project SafeEarth donated over $100,000 to TheOceanCleanUp charity.
The donated money was raised from taking a cut out of SAFEEARTH token transaction fees. The funds will go towards the removal of plastic waste.
SafeEarth’s sole focus is to generate capital and build a community that will repair the ecological damage done to the planet.
The project also collaborates with another green charity called The Earth Fund, which has raised around 50 ETH to be used for similar causes.
Crypto as a marketing strategy
As a PR exercise, selling a luxury yacht this way is a revelation. The free worldwide publicity gained as the story catches fire is usually beyond most marketing budgets.
More importantly, this introduces mainstream news outlets to the idea that cryptos, and more importantly, NFTs, are now a thing.
However, there has to be some belief when it comes to the metaverse. It’s one thing buying real-life items with crypto, one among a host of assets. It’s another thing completely to invest in a world still under construction.
Whether it’s a PR stunt or something that will bolster the future foundation of crypto, these big-ticket items are only one part of the still-growing metaverse.
It’s a brave new world – with wild frontiers everywhere inside it.
What do you think about buying superyachts? Tell us here.
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