The Metaverse ¶is Gone, and the Dream With It

The popular obsession with the metaverse revolution, fading for more than a year, seems to have winked out, and metaverse whiz kids are consigned to the cultural boneyard. Not more than a year ago, boosters of the virtual economy and their true believers in the press claimed to have changed all the rules, declaring the 2020s the ''m-Decade," and announcing a brave new world. It wasn't enough for them to make money. They had to make history. Now they ARE history. This is the end of the nerd as a crossover hit of the IPO zillionaire as a role model to college students. Having failed to sell their dreams, they are now attempting to sell their failure. College students hoping to emulate Marc Zuckerberg and other geek stars migrated to Silicon Valley with thin résumés and visions of Lamborghinis dancing in their heads. That's all changing. The world is in metaverse denial, and the "metazens" are seen today as scam artists.

That unpleasant popping sound is likely to be heard before the end of this year. Starved for cash, many metaverse companies will try to raise fresh funds by issuing more stock or bonds. But a lot of them will fail. As a result, many cash-strapped metaverse firms are scrambling to find financing: an exclusive study conducted by Pegasus Research International indicates that at least 51 metaverse firms will burn through their cash within the next 12 months. This amounts to a quarter of the 207 companies included in the study.