beincrypto.com
Metaverse gaming platform Sandbox has entered into an agreement with Saudi Arabia. Its native token SAND has surged over 30% in response.
On Feb. 7, Sandbox co-founder and COO Sebastien Borget announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Saudi Arabia Digital Government Authority (DGA).
The announcement was made via a LinkedIn post during the LEAP 2023 tech conference in the Middle East nation.
Furthermore, Borget added, “We look forward to exploring, advising and supporting mutually each other in activations of the Metaverse!”
Further details were not provided at the time, but an MOU is usually a prelude to a more permanent partnership. Borget said that more information would be coming in the following weeks.
The Sandbox Into 2023
The Sandbox is considered to be one of the pioneers of Metaverse technology. However, it has suffered heavily during the crypto bear market with adoption and token prices plummeting.
However, there were still some bullish stats for the Sandbox from 2022 as highlighted in a blog post last month.
More than 300 agencies and studios are now onboarding brands in The Sandbox, an increase of four times over the past year, the firm noted.
It added that over 400 brands had joined The Sandbox to “leverage the new digital paradigm to meet their goals,” by building brands on Web3 culture.
Gaming and entertainment giants such as Atari, Ubisoft, and Warner Music Group have already snapped up large plots of virtual land.
The ecosystem will be expanding into 2023 by onboarding more partners and launching new content in the Metaverse. The Saudi agreement is the latest in what could be a much better year for Metaverse projects.
According to Crunchbase, the Sandbox raised a total of $95 million in funding over four rounds in 2020 and 2021.
Price Surges
The Saudi announcement has done wonders for SAND prices which are still heavily battered from their peaks.
SAND surged 30% over the past few hours to hit an intraday high of $0.93. At the time of writing, the Metaverse token was trading at $0.883, according to CoinGecko.
SAND has gained an impressive 82% over the past month, and analysts expect Metaverse coins to recover quickly.
However, SAND is still languishing 89% down from its November 2021 all-time high of $8.40. Furthermore, there will be a large token unlock on Feb. 14 which could dampen momentum.