Citi is the latest Wall Street player to issue a bullish forecast for web3 and the metaverse, which describe a future vision for the internet built around decentralized technologies and virtual worlds. The metaverse economy could be an $8 trillion to $13 trillion total addressable market by 2030, Citi said in a research report published Thursday. The bank’s definition of the metaverse goes beyond sticking to virtual worlds, like gaming and applications in virtual reality. Citi’s broad vision of the metaverse includes smart manufacturing technology, virtual advertising, online events like concerts, as well as digital forms of money such as cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Under this umbrella, the metaverse could see 5 billion unique internet visitors by the end of the decade, driving trillions of dollars in revenue in this next-generation of the internet, the bank said. Citi is just the latest banking giant to call the metaverse and web3 a trillion-dollar opportunity. In research published in December, Goldman Sachs put a $12.5 trillion number on the space, in a bullish outlook that assumed one-third of the digital economy shifts into virtual worlds and then expands by 25%.
Read more : Citi Sees Metaverse Economy as Large as $13T by 2030.