Shanghai allocates $1.5 billion to the Metaverse development fund

The city of Shanghai leads China’s economic recovery by backing development projects in the Metaverse.

The South China Morning Post reports that the Shanghai government is planning to establish a development fund of nearly $1.5 billion dedicated to metaverse development projects.

According to the head of Shanghai’s Economy and Information Technology Committee, Wu Jincheng, the financing will go towards creating 10 leading companies and 100 small-sized firms that will specialize in benchmarking products and services for the metaverse.

“Investment in the metaverse will drive the transformation and upgrading of various industries in the real economy and there is huge market value for product and services, low-carbon energy projects and smart terminal technology projects in the metaverse, which is estimated to be worth a combined $224 billion by 2025.” added Wu.

Additionally, Shanghai will support 10 industry leaders and 1,000 specialized companies that will build low-carbon industrial fields for hydrogen energy development, high-end energy equipment and low-carbon metallurgy.

Metaverse is considered one amongst the four frontiers for exploration by the Shanghai government, and has announced it as a part of the five-year governmental development plan. There are plans to encourage the use of metaverse in public services, business offices, social entertainment, industrial manufacturing, production safety and electronic games.

Even though the Chinese government encourages the adoption of the Metaverse, they are still adamant about cryptocurrencies.

The recent crypto market downturn led to state owned Economic Daily to publish an op-ed to try and dissuade citizens from adopting cryptocurrencies and warn investors of the risk of Bitcoin “heading to zero”.