Inside a room in Portals. (Portals/Twitter)
Crypto exchange Binance.US is building a space in Portals, a metaverse platform built on the Solana blockchain. Portals recreates a dense urban environment where users can explore buildings and interactive rooms.
“Binance.US is getting a space in Portals Downtown with a focus on delivering the latest news, charts, and events virtually,” Portals head of community and partnerships Chris Lund said in a Twitter message to CoinDesk.
Companies have been rushing headfirst into open metaverses such as The Sandbox and Decentraland, both of which are Ethereum-based. Portals seems to be an early favorite for capturing metaverse mania on the high-speed Solana blockchain.
Binance.US spokesperson Zachary Tindall said the virtual buildout is meant to be a gathering place for exchange users.
“We are creating a space in the metaverse for the Binance.US community to come together,” Tindall told CoinDesk in an email. “It’s the first of many steps we’re taking to be forward-looking as we build and reach our community in new environments.”
Solana projects Raydium, Magic Eden, Audius, Bonfida and others will also have a presence in the Portals metaverse, Lund said. Metaverses generally describe a virtual world in which people can interact as they do in the real world, but digitally.
Traditional companies have made a beeline for the metaverse in the past year. Social media giant Facebook underwent a major rebrand and became Meta in a broader effort to lead metaverse-based applications. It’s unclear how Facebook’s metaverse effort will interact with existing open metaverses.
Over in Decentraland, global electronics giant Samsung launched a metaverse version of its Samsung 837 location in New York City. Called “Samsung 837X,” the pop-up space featured quests leading to exclusive NFTs and live mixed-reality events.
