Why The Sandbox Was Climbing Almost 7% Today

What happened

Spooky season might be upon us, but investors were hardly spooked by the prospects for The Sandbox (SAND -0.37%). On Sunday, they were trading the specialty token up by just under 7% across the 24 hours preceding roughly 6:30 p.m. ET. Seasonal factors played a role in this advance, as did the continued momentum of the metaverse that the cryptocurrency anchors.

So what

The Sandbox Game is a metaverse with its own economy, hence the near-namesake token. The developers behind it run a series of Alpha Seasons, which they make available to users as sneak previews for new features and locations. At the moment, The Sandbox is pushing its Halloween Special, a creepy world that's tied into the current Alpha Season 3.

And who, after all, doesn't like immersing themselves into the odd and scary at this time of the year? It isn't easy to tie a blockchain or cryptocurrency into Halloween (you can't buy zombie-costumed Bitcoin, for example), so it's hard for developers to market their wares for the holiday. The Sandbox does not have that problem.

As with any metaverse project, or online world generally, its success is dependent on the user base. After all, a virtual world isn't very compelling without a population. The Sandbox's Halloween Special is sure to draw curious players who already populate the developer's metaverse, and perhaps it will even rope in a few new devotees. This can only be beneficial for its native cryptocurrency.

Now what

Compounding that, The Sandbox continues to expand. Late last week, iconic fashion brand Gucci announced it has rolled out its own piece of real estate in the Sandbox metaverse. Called Gucci Vault Land, this will be open as a "private event" on a limited run until Nov. 9.

In the company's flowery language, Gucci Vault Land offers "an ephemeral platform to manifest the multifaceted essence of today's Vault in one single place." That certainly won't be for every Sandbox player, but it does indicate the metaverse's increasing popularity for a wide variety of developers and players.