FOR SALE: VIRTUAL REAL ESTATE FOR ACTUAL MONEY

HRIS ADAMO CONSIDERS HIMSELF LATE TO THE game when it comes to investing in NFTs, or nonfungible tokens. He collected his first one in summer 2021. But when it comes to buying up property in the metaverse, Adamo is early. Eight months ago, the Miami-based venture capitalist and a group of associates calling themselves the MetaCollective DAO (a decentralized autonomous organization, the blockchain version of a venture capital fund) used a virtual real estate broker to buy 23 parcels in the Sandbox, a user-generated, blockchain-based virtual world, for prices starting at 1 ETH (about $3,000). A nearby property sold for about 42 ETH, or $130,000. The land—pixels, really—borders the compound of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, a buzzy NFT community, and a plot owned by Adidas. They’re calling it Sandbox Hill Road, as a nod to Silicon Valley’s famous Sand Hill Road and to the Sandbox, the platform where this “land” exists. Already, the parcels’ value has gone up