Metaverse is set to be the future of technology, and will bring a new revolution in the concept of user experience. In the future, we might shift a major part of our lives to these virtual and augmented realities (1). The concept of living in a virtual 3D world may soon become the reality of our world.
Many major companies and businesses have started taking an interest in Metaverse after the CEO of Facebook decided to change the name of his company to 'Meta' (2).
According to Zuckerberg 'Meta' is set to focus on the development of the metaverse, so that it can assist people to connect, interact, search for communities, and grow their businesses. It aims to provide its user with a futuristic user experience.
If you are unfamiliar with the term Metaverse, then you might be familiar with its concept. Who hasn't been familiar with living in a virtual 3D world in the future? Many have dreamt of it, and this might soon come true shortly.
Metaverse (3) will be the combination of online social experience projected in a three-dimensional digital world. It is based on technologies like virtual realities and augmented realities. We will be shifting our business into a three-dimensional digital metaverse.
The metaverse is considered to be the future of today's internet. It is the next generation of today's technology. Therefore, with a promise of a future, metaverse has gained the attention of a lot of investors. These investors invest their money in metaverse despite the high risk and volatility because they believe metaverse to be a major part of our future.
ETF stands for Exchange-Traded Fund (4) and, as you might already know, is called a basket of securities. ETFs are less volatile than stock and therefore, more secure. ETF has diversified investments, these could be stocks, bonds, commodities, and other securities, hence they are also called holdings.
ETFs as we already know are security baskets, these baskets function quite similar to mutual funds. They seek to track indexes, sectors, commodities, and other assets. ETFs although similar to mutual funds could be bought and sold like on stock exchanges. the process might be quite similar.
Metaverse ETF, what is that?
ETF is predicted to be the future of investment, where people invest in the best-performing metaverse stocks. ETFs are a combination of the features of mutual funds and traditional shares; they can trade on the stock market, like shares, and are passively managed.
Therefore, ETFs are used for long-term investment when they identify assets with high-value potential (5). These characteristics of ETFs make them highly suitable for technologies with great potential like the Metaverse.
There are many Metaverse ETFs in the world that you can choose to invest in.
Following is the list of Metaverse ETFs that you can purchase and sell:
- Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF
- The Simplify Volt Fintech Disruption ETF
- ProShares Metaverse ETF
- eToro Metaverse Life Smart Portfolio
- Subversive Metaverse ETF
- Horizons Global Metaverse Index ETF
- Fount Metaverse ETF
- Defiance ETF
- Evolve Metaverse ETF
- First Trust Indxx Metaverse ETF
Exchange-Trade Funds are themed funds, which you can invest in the metaverse with leading performance. You can also invest metaverse ETFs on related stocks that are available for exchanges (6). These ETFs have a low to moderate diversity. They can help you get profits from an early investment in the rapidly growing field of the metaverse.
Metaverse has gained a lot of attention in the past few years and looking at the rising interest of many companies and start-ups trying to develop this new technology, it is safe to assume there would bound to give you some profit. Therefore, investing in them would be a great opportunity.
Roundhill Ball metaverse ETF is one of the earliest metaverse ETFs to be launched. The performance of the Ball Metaverse Index is tracked by these funds. Many globally-listed equity securities of companies involved with the metaverse technology are part of the index (7).
These companies may be part of activities like providing products, technologies, and services, to the development of the metaverse, so that they can benefit from the revenues.
After the launch of Roundhouse ETF, five other ETFs have launched soon after, these were: Fount, Subversive, ProShares, Fidelity, and First Trust Indxx. Out of these, only Subversive is nonindexed.
Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF, Explained!
As you are already aware, Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF was the first-ever Metaverse ETF. This ETF comprises many major companies, that are basically involved with Metaverse. It manages approximately $863 million worth of assets; METV is the current ticker of the Metaverse ETFs (8).
METV was launched in June 2021; its purpose is to correspond to the Ball Metaverse Index's performance.
So, what is Ball Metaverse Index?
Well, it is a globally designed index that will track the performance of Metaverse; this index includes a list of companies that provides services, products, and capabilities to the Metaverse.
So, which are these companies?
These companies are from different backgrounds, such as Nike, Walmart, Gap, Hulu, etc.
These Exchange-Trade Funds may include companies that are developing the infrastructure for the Metaverse, such as Meta; it could be companies that lead the social, commercial, and content regarding metaverse, for example, Tencent. These could also include gaming companies that are involved in the development of the virtual world such as Roblox (9).
The Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF only focuses on investing in the companies involved with Metaverse.
Roundhill Ball Metaverse was launched in June 2021; since then, it has become immensely popular and a major player. it launched even before metaverse started becoming the turf for future development of crypto and technology. In the year 2022, it changed its ticker from META to METV, as META was sold to Meta, which has shifted its focus to the development of Metaverse (10).
Roundhill, in March 2022, launched a European-listed version of METV.
You might want to ask can you trade options on the Metaverse METV exchange-traded fund? The answer is: Yes! Trade options are available on the NYSE American trade Market.
Since the metaverse is still in the developing stages, therefore these ETFs don't just hold only the Metaverse-centred stocks instead, you can only select stocks to invest in based on predictions like which company in the future might be able to obtain revenue from the metaverse shortly (11).
Therefore, many indexes using AI algorithms predict which company would likely obtain their revenue from the Metaverse in the future.
The Roundhill Metaverse trades on the New York Stock Exchange, also called NYSE. It provides you with sectoral and thematic stock investing options (12).
Roundhill Investment also has other ETFs, these ETFs are NERD, BETZ, SUBZ, DEEP.
Where to Buy?
METV is available on many Exchange-Trade Fund brokerage platforms. You can invest in META through the following platforms:
- Robinhood
- E-Trade
- Fidelity
- SoFi
- Interactive Brokers
- Charles Schwab
- Ameritrade
- Public.com
- Vanguard
All you have to do is select whichever brokerage you prefer, create your account, and then you can buy and sell ETFs. If you already have a brokerage account (13) then you can just sign in to your account, type the ticker symbol, and you are good to go.
How to Buy Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETFs?
If you wish to invest in the Roundhill Ball ETFs, you would have to visit their website at roundhillinvestment.com. The website allows you to choose from multiple options of ETFs to invest in.
Follow the process to buy Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETFs successfully:
- First, open the Roundhill investment Website.
- Once you have reached the website, select the invest option on the upper right side, near the Subscribe option.
- You will then see a list of funds you can choose from; these are all the funds/ETFs available at Roundhill investments. Choose the Fund that you want to invest in.
- You would then see a list of brokerage options through which you can invest in these ETFs. Select the option that is most suitable for you.
- Once you have selected the brokerage,, you would be directed to their page, from where you can proceed with your investment.
- You can then buy and sell ETF through your brokerage account.
You also have the option to go to any brokerage that you use directly or are familiar with. Type the ticker symbol, and you would then get exposure to major companies that make a profit and gain benefit from the metaverse.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Investing Metaverse ETFs.
Metaverse ETFs are very convenient and promise high profit therefore, they are capable of attracting a lot of investment quite easily (14). Metaverse is now considered to be the successor of this internet generation. in the future, we might be living in a three-dimensional virtual world. A world that was persisting and made with AR and VR technologies.
Many companies worldwide are already investing large sums of their money into the development of Metaverse. META has already shifted its whole focus to the development of Metaverse. Many start-ups have been working on this project for a long time.
From observing how many Globally listed companies are now associating themselves with metaverse, they are providing services, products, technologies, etc.
The Metaverse ETF sector is quite attractive for the technology investors; it is bound to become huge like cryptocurrency; therefore, many are attempting to ride the bandwagon of Metaverse. Hence investing in the metaverse (15) ETFs is something that many people might do.
Metaverse has now become a fast-growing sector that is ever-increasing in size. You might be surprised to know despite of the amount of attention it has gained in the last few years it is still in its infancy stage. Therefore, we can only imagine how huge this market will become in the future. the investors have already gained huge gains by investing in the metaverse ETFs.
Although there is not much information available about the investment around Metaverse. There is a significant lack of research on the Metaverse. But this only functions as an advantage for its market, making ETFs even more valuable for the investors (16).
Even though it is quite cumbersome to manually identify and purchase shares, keeping track of the high-performing Metaverse companies. The task is difficult but well worth it. Also, Purchasing a metaverse ETF is still more convenient.
The issue arises that Metaverse is still a developing field, which is bound to be more volatile. There is no guarantee about the timelines, when it is released, or the market adoption rates. As you might know, ETFs generally operate on non-diversified assets with high risk.
Metaverse being in its infancy stages no doubt has a lot of potentials, but it also puts it in a disadvantageous position. the combination of non-diversified high-risk assets and the unstable and volatile nature of metaverse makes this investment even riskier for the investors (17).
Nonetheless, the risks attached to Metaverse investment still don't stop many from investing a large sum of money because of its immense potential. ETFs can potentially be the method of investment for companies that have involved themselves with Metaverse.
The fact that a big company like Facebook has changed its name and shifted its whole focus on the development of Metaverse is to provide its users with an immersive reality that persists even when the user is absent. To provide them with a futuristic user interface, where they live in an augmented reality using their digital avatar (18). This move by Meta has convinced many to shift their focus on the development of Metaverse.
Therefore, no matter how risky it is, many people still invest a lot of money in Metaverse because they believe it will give them huge returns in the future.