Decentraland (MANA) vs The Sandbox (SAND) – Which one is a better investment?

If you are looking for the two biggest metaverse and play-to-earn platforms, then it’s got to be Decentraland and The Sandbox. But which one is a better investment? Both are created on the Ethereum network.

Decentraland was developed in 2017 by Esteban Ordano and Ariel Meilich as a virtual platform for creating and monetizing applications and content. It is powered by three assets- MANA, LAND, and WEAR. It is the first blockchain metaverse that is run by a DAO. CoinFund, FBG Capital, and Digital Currency Group are some of with notable investors asides from the partnerships they have with Samsung, Polygon, and Cyberpunk among others.

The Sandbox metaverse was released to the public in November 2021 under Arthur Madrid and Sebastien Borgat. It has four tokens- SAND, LAND, ASSET, and GAMES. It is backed by one of the largest investment companies, SoftBank. It aims to make blockchain gaming popular.

While MANA is an ERC-20 token that must be burnt to purchase LAND on Decentraland, SAND is a utility token used to perform transactions on The Sandbox. Both work on the proof-of-stake consensus method. Although The Sandbox has plans to establish a DAO where SAND serves as a governance token, it is yet to be implemented.

Decentraland has 90,601 plots of land, while The Sandbox has over 160,000 parcels of land. While LANDs are ERC-721 standard, The Sandbox also uses ERC-1155. LANDs can form individual plots, estates, and districts in both metaverses except for plazas which only exist on Decentraland.

SAND is selling for $4.07 right now with a market cap of $3.7 billion, while MANA costs $2.55 now with a market cap of $3.86 billion. Although this implies that people are investing in MANA over SAND, Decentraland is less of a gaming platform than The Sandbox. This might push people to The Sandbox in the long run. Also, Decentraland is decentralized but this will change when The Sandbox implements its DAO.

In November 2021, both tokens peaked at $8.40 and $5.85, respectively before settling at their present prices. While they are both similar in almost every respect, SAND is the better investment in the long run. If you are invested in metaverses and play-to-earn, then get yourself some SAND. However, if you are an investor, do proper research and deal wisely.

Want to learn how to safely invest in SAND? Check out our comprehensive SAND buying guide here or purchase from our recommended platform below.

Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more.