The Sandbox - Issue #59
In this newsletter, we are profiling The Sandbox [SAND]. In previous newsletters, we have profiled Bitcoin, Cardano, Stablecoins, Uniswap and many others. Access all our newsletters in our archives at madcapx.substack.com.
The Short of It
SAND has been a well-placed token in 2021 to take advantage of the virtual real estate boom, the metaverse hoopla and the bullish crypto cycle. Are we going to see more of the same in 2022, or is the ride over?
Profiling
The Sandbox is a virtual world that was launched way back in 2012 by mobile game developer Pixowl. In 2019, the game platform was moved to the blockchain, and their utility ERC20 token, SAND, was created. The founders are Arthur Madrid and Sebastien Borget. Their goal was to create a “play-to-earn” gaming platform utilizing blockchain technology that allows you to be both a creator and player in a Minecraft-like environment.
There is a maximum supply of three billion SAND tokens. About 26% were set aside in a company reserve, while about 18% was allocated for seed sales. 12% was used on their Binance Launchpad. The remaining tokens are allocated to the team and advisors. The SAND utility token is used for the purchase of game items, staking, as well as governance. Digital real estate for creating gaming scenes and placing items can be purchased in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) called LAND.
Players can monetize their efforts on the platform by a number of different means. They can use the Voxel Editor software to create voxel-based assets that can be placed into the game. Just as with LAND, these assets can then be sold on the Marketplace. There is also Game Maker software that allows you to create 3D minigames which can be put into lands in the game world. This software utilizes visual scripting tools so that no actual written coding is required.
Most recently, they released their alpha world viewer software (currently only available for Windows), which allows anybody to enter and explore the alpha hub lands. If you were lucky enough to grab some land and develop it, eventually, everyone will be able to come to visit your areas and play your games. Very similar to how you can explore user creations in Decentraland. You can check out the big world map by going to https://www.sandbox.game/en/map.
The Sandbox has made a number of commercial partnerships which will each own and develop considerable portions of land on the map. These include the likes of Atari, SBS Game Academy, The Walking Dead, The Smurfs, Snoop Dogg, and Adidas, to name a few.
As with other crypto gaming ecosystems, the players and creators that got in early paid reasonable prices to obtain assets and lands. Now, anybody looking to get into ownership is going to have to pay high prices as the value of everything has gone up substantially.
With the recent buzz around Facebook wanting to create a virtual reality world or metaverse, it has helped projects like The Sandbox also to gain a lot of attention. As mentioned earlier, there are other blockchain-based gaming worlds out there, like Decentraland. It is still early days for these types of projects, so there is room for all of them to grow before a clear winner can be determined.
Trend Lines
SAND paired against BTC in 2021 had a fantastic bull run going up 14,433% from the lows in January to the peak in November. Since the peak, SAND has corrected a little over 30%. The weekly chart below continues to look bearish.
When we pull up the 4-hour chart on SAND/BTC, it broke to the upside the downward move on December 15th. Is SAND starting an upward trend? Will the previous lows hold that are shown as red dotted dashes on the chart? Good bullish signs would be if it could break above previous highs.
When you pair SAND against USD, the growth was magnified since BTC went up also so much in 2021. From January lows of $0.03 to highs of $8.80 in November, SAND increased by 26,583%. The current SAND price is $4.91 as of this writing.
The following chart shows the average price of land within The Sandbox. In October 2021, the price of virtual land hovered between $1150 and $2700. In the last 30 days, the average has increased to a range of $12,700 - $17,600. A plot of land beside Atari is going for $195,000. In September 2020, the cheapest land was being sold for $43. Now the lowest price is over $10,000. In November 2021, Republic Realm bought land for $4.3 million from Atari SA, making it the largest purchase to date. Land is purchased using the SAND token.
Another Trend Line
In Issue #6, November 30, 2020, we reviewed Polkadot [DOT]. At that point, we had very little chart history to go on. DOT was in a bearish decline from the first peak and had not yet found its bottom. In that first run-up, it saw an increase of 395%; after a correction, it went up 471%. The current price of DOT is back visiting the weekly solid candle peaks of the first run-up. When we draw the trend from the start, DOT is hitting the bottom support line. Could there be enough support here to bounce the value of DOT against BTC for some significant gains, or will DOT break down further to visit the next support?
Portfolios
This portfolio section gives you an idea of what sort of return you can get when investing in crypto assets.
BTC/USD FUND is up 334% since October 1st, 2020. Since this is a long-term holding, it is best kept in cold wallet storage or a safe custody solution. We continue to see a long-term hold position as our best stable alternative. This past week bitcoin has been ranging between $45,456 and $49,500 USD in value.
FUND 3 started on November 16, 2020, with $1000 USD in value and was invested into BTC, LTC, ETH, and ADA. The total amount of BTC value from the four coins has had a gain of 88% since the start. The USD fund value is up 427% since the beginning. We will hold these positions to see how well it does against our BTC-only portfolio. LTC is down -24% against BTC. ETH is up 203% against BTC since the start. ADA has a gain of 330% against BTC and 1096% to USD.
BLWX Fund started on February 22, 2021. They all are assets we have profiled, and we are interested in how they will perform in 2021 against BTC. BAT has a gain of 136% against BTC since the start; LINK is down -29%, WAVES is up 63%, XMR is down -5%. Overall, against BTC, the fund is up 41% and 21% against USD.
Overall, Bitcoin should be your first choice as an investment in crypto, though many digital assets can give you excellent gains if you manage your risk. As a long-term investor, we see it as our most significant portfolio investment. If you are a day trader, there are many great assets to put on your watch list. Look through our previous newsletters to find some.
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About
MadCapX research newsletter is written by the Madbyte Team. You can learn more about Madbyte and MadCapX on our websites.
Madbyte does have its own token called MADX on the Ethereum network and Madbyte on the Waves network. The two tokens are interchangeable on Madcapx.com.
Disclaimer: Nothing in this newsletter is intended to serve as financial advice. Therefore, do your own research and due diligence before applying any of the techniques highlighted in this post. Any risks or trades based on this newsletter are committed at your own risk.