Republic, the third largest equity crowdfunding portal in the United States, launched the “Republic Realm Metaverse Real Estate Fund” in March 2021, which is only open to a small number of certified investors.
It reached peak pre-orders of $75 million in a very short time. The fund is primarily focused on buying virtual real estate in NFT games such as Sandbox, axxie Infinity and Decentraland.
Once they bought the land, the idea was to hold it long-term while continuing to develop it into a virtual shopping mall, event space and other communities.
But crypto-based assets have fallen sharply since their 2021 highs, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been cracking down on the space since the FTX debacle.
Additionally, the financing has been on hold since December 2021 without access to investor funds.
Now that the SEC has officially shut it down, the fund will not make progress, Republic said.
