Crypto and digital assets have plunged in value in the past six months. Scams, Ponzi schemes, volatile movements – there are a lot of risks investing in this space.

Zech David, Chief Transformation Office at MetaVI World Pte Ltd, noted that most people simply do not have the proper financial education to invest in this space.

“Some 90% of traders in the cryptocurrency market actually lose money because they use leverage irresponsibly, do not know how to put in stop-loss orders, and they don’t look at the long term. Without an understanding of the fundamentals, they don’t have the conviction to buy and hold on to digital tokens or companies related to the metaverse for the long term,” he said.

He highlighted that while the value of Bitcoin and Ethereum are down in the past three months, on a year-on-year basis, Bitcoin is up by some 100% and Ethereum by close to 300%.

“Understand the fundamentals and the right investing principles – that’s how you can invest wisely in the space without being exposed to the huge volatility. In fact, the volatility creates the opportunity to profit from this space,” he said.

The potential of this space is huge, with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) predicting that crypto users may reach 1 billion by 2030. Meanwhile, crypto adoption is still very low compared with traditional investment assets – globally, only 0.3% of individual wealth is invested in crypto, which is incomparable with the 25% put into equities, it said.

“If you think in terms of total addressable market, there’s a lot of room to grow and we’re still in the early stage. Those who had invested in Internet companies like Tencent, Google and Facebook at the start of the Internet bubble are now millionaires and billionaires; they caught the entire Internet wave. If you educate yourself and understand more, you can ride this metaverse wave that’s coming in the next 3-5 years,” Zech said.

MetaVI is the Web3 arm of Singapore-based FinEduTech company 8VI Holdings, incorporated early this year to focus on Web3, metaverse, nonfungible token (NFT) and other digital assets in the space of education as well as investment.

MetaVI has been running classes since January and currently runs classes in English, Malay and Chinese. It has trained some 2,000 students since January, mostly professionals in their 30s to 50s.

“There’s a trend of people coming in who want to diversify their portfolio beyond just property, stocks and bonds, into digital assets. With inflation now a big thing, a lot of asset classes can no longer beat inflation. Investors are looking at diversifying into cryptocurrency or digital assets to provide a better yield in the long run,” Zech shared.

The courses MetaVI offers include 2-hour introductory classes on the metaverse, Web3.0 and digital assets and 2-day foundation classes over the weekends, where participants are taught the fundamentals, the opportunities and the risks, and how to get started in the metaverse. It also offers a professional-level course that spans eight weeks, called the NFT Creation Lab, where individuals are coached on how to launch their own NFT collection for a social cause or for business.

MetaVI itself has launched NFTs and successfully sold US$4.5 million worth of NFTs even during the bear market.

Zech believes the hype is over for NFTs that have no real utility, such as the “Jack Dorsey's first tweet” NFT which sold for a whopping US$2.9 million last year but attracted no more than a US$280 bid in an auction in April.

However, digital assets hold strong fundamental value if they provide real value, real utility or real benefit, he said.

MetaVI simplifies NFTs into four categories – profile pictures (NFT 1.0); utility-based NFTs (NFT 2.0) such as those that come with membership privileges and benefits; play-to-earn and move-to-earn NFTs, such as STEPN, a Web3 lifestyle app where users earn tokens by exercising; and tokenisation of real hard assets such as property, cars and gold.

“Metaverse is no longer a fad. There are governments and countries championing this whole effort,” Zech said, citing Dubai as an example. Dubai has a metaverse strategy through which it aims to create 40,000 jobs and add US$4 billion to its economy by 2030.

“In 2021, if businesses do not have a social media account, they are irrelevant. By 2025, if businesses do not have an NFT strategy, or their own NFTs to engage the community, they are irrelevant,” Zech said, quoting NFT guru Gary Vaynerchuk (aka Gary Vee).

“Just think about it – in just two more years, there’s going to be massive adoption of NFTs and digital assets into businesses,” Zech said in an interview where he also spoke on how Web3, blockchain and cryptocurrency can provide real value to people who need it most, and change the world.

Interested to hear more on metaverse trends and how you can take action to tap the opportunities in this space? Join The Future is Now 2.0: Metaverse Revolution webinar, organised by 8VI, on Saturday, 15 October 2022, from 9.30pm to 1pm.

Zech David will speak on “How Web3.0 & Digital Assets are going to Transform Businesses, Industries and Our Lives”. He is an advocate for both digital transformation and personal growth through education, and believes that blockchain and Web 3.0 will usher in the next structural revolution in the world. His 16 years of prior experience as an Intelligence Officer in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) has helped him to identify and invest in disruptive innovations. He has also co-founded three tech-related startups to date.

Alex Ng, also known as The Dollar Savvy Guy will speak on “How Do Investors Choose NFTs?” and introduce the VI Group’s portfolio of NFTs. Alex is the Master Speaker & Trainer at VI College (8VI subsidiary), with more than 10 years of investing experience in local and foreign equity markets. As a Manager of Product & Community, Alex leads VI College’s team of trainers and coaches, empowering over 80,000 graduates globally with value investing knowledge. He’s been managing a 7-figure personal portfolio which is currently growing 30% year-on-year.

Alex will also hold a panel discussion with Kenneth Siow, the General Manager (Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia) and Southeast Asia Regional Director for Tencent Cloud International, the Enterprise/ToB division of Tencent. Kenneth’s career spans over 20 years in sales, business development, sales management, partner development, professional services and consulting Services.

Get your complimentary tickets to the event here.