China’s Wuhan City Announces Plans to go Metaverse

China’s love-hate relationship with cryptos, the Metaverse, and NFTs continues at the turn of the year.

Following the Chinese government’s ban of Bitcoin (BTC) mining last summer, the Metaverse and NFTs have drawn a marked increase in interest.

Metaverse Interest in China Spikes in Spite of Government Warnings

Late last year, we reported news of Chinese tech firms going Metaverse in spite of continued government warnings. According to reports, more than 1,300 Chinese companies registered for Metaverse related trademarks. The registrations came in spite of the Chinese government looking to clamp down on NFTs and the Metaverse using AML tools. China’s central bank, the PBoC, reportedly sees “virtual assets as a pathway for illegal activities, facilitated by the isolated nature of NFTs and Metaverse-based items”.

With NFTs and the Metaverse hot news at the turn of the year, there have been a number of reports of Chinese provinces and cities jumping into the Metaverse. At the end of last year, CNBC reported news of Shanghai releasing its 5-year development plan that included “Metaverse use in public areas, business offices, and other areas”.

Since then, news hit the wires of the official Xinhua news agency issuing a digital media photo collection via NFTs. The move came in spite of the government warnings and plans to clamp down on NFT activity.

Wuhan Province Plans Metaverse

Overnight, news hit the wires of Wuhan City planning to develop a Metaverse to support an economic recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the report, the city will proceed with integrating the Metaverse and blockchain, amongst other 2022 work plan elements into its economy.

A Wuhan city is the capital of Hubei Province and is the 9^th most populous city in China. Wuhan market was the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak back in 2020.

Metaverse Linked Price Predictions for 2022

According to a report published late last year, SAND and MANA are two leading projects in the Metaverse space. Both tokens were amongst the best performers last year. The markets are expecting more of the same as interest in the Metaverse grows. Morgan Stanley analysts reportedly see the Metaverse potentially growing to an $8tn market.

At the time of writing, MANA was down by 3.14% to $3.022. A move back through a current month high $3.44 would bring December’s high $4.82 and November’s ATH $5.91 into play. The opening of the floodgates in China can only be a positive for the likes of MANA and SAND.  Competition with virtual space will also pick up as a result, however.