In the past year, nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, have been gaining basis every bit the digital art market explodes and developers experiment with a variety of utilize cases. Data from NonFungible shows that over the by 30 days, there were 58,400 NFT sales and $12.7 meg worth of volume.

In the same time period, MANA, the token behind the blockchain-based virtual world Decentraland, totaled $636,000 in NFT trades. The virtual reality platform is congenital on the Ethereum blockchain and provides a digital landscape where players can explore, interact with other players and buy land plots along with other items.

The sector is dominated by crypto collectibles and games similar Cryptopunks, Sorare, Art Blocks and Axie Infinity. These collectible NFTs range from virtual cards of professional person soccer players to crypto fine art and crypto pets.

MANA/USDT four-hour chart (Binance). Source: TradingView

During the get-go weeks of 2021, MANA rallied by 68%. In addition to this, some positive news of existent-earth authors entering the manufacture accept put some heft behind the current rally. For example, the creator of Rick and Morty auctioned off some of his digital artwork on Tuesday.

In the past 30 days, MANA traded $368 meg in transparent volume, according to data from Nomics, and this represents a 257% increase from the previous month.

Recently, the average value and number of trades in the Decentraland marketplace accept declined to about twenty per day and 70% of the sales are state and virtual properties.

Decentraland market daily transaction history. Source: NonFungible.com

Nonfungible LAND tokens represent an individual'due south buying of land parcels. These tokens comprise information similar the coordinates for the land and virtual properties. Over the past four months, the largest transaction was worth almost $150,000.

Information technology is worth noting that MANA tokens are used to buy in-game goods and services and are as well used to settle the fees generated by LAND transactions.

A decentralized autonomous organization governs Decentraland, and all changes to the code are enacted through a collection of smart contacts. The MANA token allows holders to vote on policy updates, country auctions, and subsidies for new developments.

An interesting feature is that joining this virtual globe does not require downloads, every bit the platform is spider web-based.

New features concenter new users

In the by few months, Decentraland has evolved to implement interactive applications, including payments and peer-to-peer communication.

A noncustodial, transparent, auditable Virtual Casino is likewise being built in Decentraland. In this space, players can employ either MANA tokens or Dai stablecoins, and another unique characteristic is that at that place are no Ethereum gas fees, as the transactions take place on a second layer via the Matic network. Although express games are bachelor, poker and more complex games are being developed.

On Dec. 17, 2020, a voice chat feature was added. This allows users to collaborate with each other while scrolling through the virtual world, and it replicates the type of social interaction that gamers are used to from major platforms similar PlayStation and Xbox.

Decentraland launched its State API version 2.0 on Jan. 20, and this upgrade focused on improving market metadata admission. The update added endpoints that return more digestible information for those building tools that need data near LAND parcels and estates.

Lastly, NFT art exhibitions have been gaining rail in the MANA ecosystem, and given the popularity of NFT fine art, the new feature could depict new participants to the platform. The platform also hosted a few live music events with real-globe artists, a clever move considering outdoor events similar concerts take come up to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although much has been created, some critical features have notwithstanding to be implemented. These include a mobile version of the platform, micro-payments infrastructure and integration with virtual reality platforms.

MANA Twitter user action vs. price (USD). Source: The Tie

Data from The Tie, an alternative social analytics platform, shows that the contempo price fasten was preceded by increased social network activity. Thus, for those betting on MANA token appreciation, information technology is worthwhile to monitor social network action data.

Decentraland has added a handful of new features to improve the user's experience and support the growing NFT collectibles and digital real estate sector. The new features under development also look promising, but overall, it is still in a very early adoption stage, and then participants should do their own inquiry when considering whether to invest in MANA.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the autho r and do not necessarily reverberate the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves hazard. You should conduct your own inquiry when making a determination.