Why we invest in REALY: the new gateway for Metaverse

Investment Thesis：

• Street Culture: Niche Market in Metaverse with a new segment of the audience.
• Virtual and Reality: Copy-paste need and demands from real life into Metaverse
• Fashion resources: co-founder of streetwear brand to leverage the legacy and win over audiences
• City DAO: self-sustainable economy with community in charge of treasury and governance

A new gateway to the Metaverse

When we talk about the metaverse, are we imagining the parallel world as described in the science fiction “Avalanche” that first proposed the concept of“Metaverse”, or a game with a full-functioning economic system and social relationships like World of Warcraft, or, the next era of the internet as proposed by Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg?
Maybe no one actually knows what the ultimate Metaverse looks like, but, at least for now, what we can say with some certainty is that Metaverse cannot be a centralized platform dominated by Meta, or a game with a closed economy.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. It’s unlikely that we’ll be able to jump into the metaverse right away.

REALY offers a new gateway: Using NFC technology to bring streetwear into the metaverse, REALY focuses on street culture to onboard people into Metaverse with user experience.​

Street culture: Gen Z on the rise

If you profile buyers of streetwear, you will most likely find characteristics such as being at a young age, willing to try new things, happy to pay, and the need to express oneself, which highly overlap with NFT users. In other words, people who like street culture will probably enjoy NFT and Metaverse as well.

The streetwear market reaches 100 billion with a majority of the consumer being GenZ. Buyers of streetwear pay for identity and status, which is very similar to NFT buyers who purchase NFT to signal who they are. As a platform that cuts into the metaverse through street culture, REALY provides users with a new label as the user in the first street culture metaverse, thus bringing in a brand new segment of users into metaverse.

The crypto market is still niche, with huge room for growth
According to Dune analytics, in April 2021, the number of daily active addresses of Bitcoin reached a peak of 1.36 million. In 2021, OpenSea, which accounts for 80% of NFT sales, will reach $14.6 billion in annual sales, bring the independent address of Ethereum to a new high of 720,000. This is definitely huge growth for the crypto community, but, when compared to the $200 billion market of streetwear, there is still so much room that crypto community can grow.

The categories of street culture continue to expand, and REALY are creating new scenarios in the metaverse. Street culture is very diverse and influencers can be Rappers, influencers on Instagram, or YouTubers. Each influencer may have their own group of followers with little or overlap. Although the number of followers could be small, the willingness to pay for can be high. As a consumer, the type of objects they pay for include clothes, sneakers, bags, cosmetic products, and even blind boxes. The material value is, nowadays, less important than emotional value and the increasingly important factor is the recognition a consumer can derive from its consumption.

REALY’s metaverse opens for more imagination. In the street culture metaverse,you can buy wearable NFTs, go to a concert, and even get a pet. At the same time, REALY is friendly to non-crypto consumers as well. For people who are new to NFT, REALY provides a normal register with email or mobile phones and will automatically assign wallet addresses. When people are more familiar with the process, REALY can help users transfer their own data and thus lower the entry barriers for newcomers.

The loyalty in street culture: from niche to mainstream
Different brands can attract different groups of people, however, regardless of the brand or genre, all buyers are audiences of street culture. As the street culture metaverse, REALY can appeal to users of different streetwear and be the first metaverse in the niche market trendy.

Combining Virtual and Reality: smooth transition into metaverse

The explosion of NFTs proves that NFTs as consumer goods is valid. Just like any physical goods, buying NFT is a way of expressing oneself and seeking recognition. In the crypto world,owning NFTs is a sign of self-identity expression and community status. The reason for the huge success of profile picture NFT is that the existing web2,such as twitter, still offers space and venues to display, spread, and thus reach consensus. For example, Stephen Curry changed his profile picture of Twitter to BAYC.

Our current Internet is still mainly on screens that are 2D, and metaverse is the 3D space that provides experience that is more native to people who live in 3D spaces. And in Web2, the 2D JPEG NFT can circulate across twitter, facebook, and Instagram etc, perfectly adapts to the channel in the existing social platform. Your twitter and discord can all set NFT as your avatar and become a part of your social identity (and a very conspicuous part).But our world is 3D, and the one that is closer to our real-life should be metaverse. So we can expect our demand in real life, such as appearance and self-image also occur in the metaverse

REALY mobile APP: Physical + NFT, New traffic entry

REALY offers products that have built-in NFC chip with encrypted on-chain data that can be authenticated with the mobile phone APP, instead of relying on human services that are time-consuming and unstandardized process.

For every item sold on the REALY, an NFT is offered with merchandising details and transaction history. For any users, specualtive traders or actual users, NFT can be traded on-chain to reduce transaction friction when comparing to the hasssle and costs of exchanging physical good.

Atthe same time, NFT is an extreme market in that with very few projects accounts for the vast majority of transactions. The sales of NFTs in 2021 marked over $13 billion, and,according to Deflamama, the total trading volume of Cryptopunks reached $2.98 billion, almost 23% of total sales volume. In march 2021, artist Kimberly Parker and data scientists looked at NFT projects at OpenSea find that 53.6% of NFTs priced below $200, and only 2.5% of sales sold between $600-$700. Most NFTs may ended up being some Metadata in the wallet, without liquidity due to lack of intrinsic value.

REALY binds physical objects with NFT, thus creating a second use case for streetwear while giving NFT intrinsic value. After all, you can still put on sneakers. When exposed to this new form of NFT, buyers of streetwear can be expected have a try given their willingness of trying new thingg.Currently, there are about 10,000+registered users on REALY app, and, with a conservative estimated conversion rate of 50%, 50,000 people will be intrested in participating the new thing called NFT.(while holders of the №.1 NFT projects is only 6,000).

REALY Avatar: Character customization+ wearable NFT, necessity in metaverse

A subindustry in gaming, character customization givers players to reinvent themselves with tools like 3D modeling etc. There is increasing demand in this and a new profession born out this to satisfy unmet needs.

REALY gives users the freedom of make-over in metaverse by allowing tools to customer their avatars. In the new space, you can choose how to present yourself. In fact, it is pretty complicatted in creating a face. Skin color, shape of a nose, size of the mouth, hairstyle, and even body shape, etc are all time-consuming to create and difficul to design. Compared to other metaverse, the avatars in REALY allows more customization and thus are more lifelike.

If you look at the avatar availble in Meta, there are only dozens of based on choices for users to choose body shape or shape of the face.

​On top of character customization,REALY’s Avatar can also put on clothing that are NFTs,a new category of NFT. Just like Gamefi,characters, accessories, and props are all NFTs that can be traded and exchanged. Wearable NFT thus create another new use case that can be consumed and traded transaction problems.

The apparel market is gigantic, growing from $1.3 trillion in 2015 to around $1.5 trillion in 2020, and the second-hand apparel market value has grown from $18 billion to $20 billion. However, the market structre is pretty much fixed and made a few richest people on earth, such as the founder of Zara and the founder of H&M.

However, Metaverse is still in the early stagge. In terms of product life, we are still in the first stage of introduction where we are still need to see the product tested by the market for testing and customers try out of curiocity that are still a small group of people.At the same time, there are still limitations of technology that still take time and capital to future maturere. For mainstream adoption, there still need more marketing campaigns to attract customers and increase awareness.

Immersive Virtual Concerts:proved success
The earliest virtual concert could date back to 2007 when the Philharmonic Orchestra hosted a virtual concert in Second Life.However, the immersive experience is limited by technical issues such as bandwith and network infrastructure.By February 2019, DJ Marshmello’s virtual concert at the game Epic attracted more than 10 million fans. In April 2020, Travis Scott’s concert in the shooting game “Fortnite” attracted nearly 28 million players, the highest number of online players in a single game.

The experience of virutal concert is unparalleled to reality.Audicen can get closer to the performer, who can change his appearance according to the music or his own choice.At the same time, in the metaverse, therea are many more possibilities for the artist and perfromer to create a scene that is previously unfeasible in the real life.

Moreover, every new user will create a new share of revenue with almost zero marginal cost, which can grow infinitely if we disregard network limitations. Look at BTS’s virtual concert in June 2020, there are over 750,000 viewers from 107 regions, setting a new record of box of $20 million. In the future, the experience of participating in a concert in the Metaverse may also be forged into NFT, or become part of the identity of DID.

Virtual concert is a proven business model, but still rely on the influence of IP and singers. REALY can leverage its connections with musicians and artists to host concerts in its metaverse and thus create a first-mover advantage.

Virtual Pets: Social + Emotional Needs.The 10,000 Bearache NFT released by REALY in September is the membership certificate of the Metaverse.As a holder of Bearache NFT, you can:

• Right to claim lands
• Airdrop of $REAL Tokens
• Exclusive merchandise including limited edition t-shirts, hoodies, sneakers and more.
• Whitelist of digital fashion items as NFTs and virtual concert tickets

Pet games can help imporve user retention because players may form emotional connection with their pets and thus invest more financially and emotionally.

NFT platform: one-stop platform for issuing,trading,and displaying
In the current system, trading and displaying of NFT is decoupled. You can buy an NFT on opensea but you put it on your twitter profile picure.Of course, you can still show your NFT as a profile picture or in your wallet, but there is platform that offers both trading and displaying of NFT.

As a metaverse, REALY naturally presents venues to display NFT, or simply shilling. Recently, Realy released the first NFT, CUBEING by Cédric, the visual director of Daft Punk, who is famous for the pioneering visual effect. It shows that REALY is attractive to leaders in each subdivision of street culture and REALY is the perfect place for connecting the art with right group of audience.

Fashion resources: Cofunder of streetwear into the Metaverse

The street culture is about image and identity and influencers are big part of the story.

Influencers in street culture:where story begins
REALY’s team comes from street culture and is connected with influencers from fashion, music, and art.When they take the lead in joining Realy’s metaverse, we can expect more followers to join their footsteps.

• 88 rising record label: including the rapper Higher brothers, Rich Brian, and Jackson Wang
• Gallery: Shanghai Golden Harvest Gallery, which sold Cryptopunk for ¥5,230,500

Brand entry point: Traditional brands are looking for the next growth opportunity, and Realy offers the venue.Weak sales in offline scenarios and sluggish online sales pushes more brands to look for new opportunities. Against the backdrop of slowing global economic growth, the metaverse seems to provideds space for more imagination.

Amazon succeeded in revolutionize shopping experience by creating online shopping experience that was never possible offline and bringing all consumers and merchants on one platform.

Realy is revolutionary by creating a full experience in a 3D immversive metaverse that enables production,consumption, and usage in one place.At the same time, as the first street culture metaverse, REALY could easily become the first metaverse with large user bases that follows influencers in street culture. Developed on the basis of the professional game engine Unreal Engine 4, REALY is highly portable and supports various desktops, including mobile phones, consoles and VR platforms, ensuring that users can easily enter the metaverse from various terminals.

CityDAO: Sustainable Economy

Cities in the REALY metaverse have blocks, buildings, shops, galleries and apartments. These are scarcer resources in the form of NFT, and users can choose to build, decorate, rent, or run their own stores,all of which will be rewarded with $REAL in CityDAO.

Community governance:
The entire world is managed and run by the DAO organization, and the financial and administrative rights of the Metaverse are returned to the hands of the community. Having $REAL tokens or holding lands can obtain voting rights to decide:

• City -tax rate
• Staking reward
• City reward
• Layout of city
• Budget for campaign
• Brand entry

Land economy: hold or rent for income
Only the holder of the land NFT has the right to open a store, but the holder can also rent. The rent is determined by the market supply and demand, and both the land owner and the operator can receive reward in $REAL given its activities and volume of sales.

NFT reimagined: UGC

In addition to directly purchasing finished NFTs, Realy provides a new way of minting NFT. Each city in the metaverse possess different raw materials and resources and, to acquire a hoodies of limited version,like Supreme,players need to go to different cities to collect materials based on the formula announced by Supreme in order to mint the NFT. This creates a brand new experience in minting and collecting NFTs.

Team spirit: Born out of Street culture

George, CEO, as the co-founder of streetwear INNERSECT, which onboarded various designer brands, collectibles and artists, with sales reaching more than 30 million US dollars. Before entering the fashion industry, George focused on renewable energy as an investor in private equity firms.

Token value: City tax + Trascation Fee + Bootstrapping

The source of income for the $REAL token is pretty straight-forward, city tax plus a 10% transaction fee. At the same time, tokens are also used to incentivize users to partiticipate and thus bootstrap activities in the metaverse, including daily tasks and events in the city, which is a proven success in Defi projects.

Holders of $REAL tokens can stake the tokens, collect transaction fees from the entire ecosystem, and capture the growing value of the entire REALY ecosystem. At the same time, creators or brands can build a revenue pool, and token holders can pledge to share the revenue and get 9% of the sales revenue (this is not an additional extraction, but the 10% fee charged by the REALY platform). Thus allowing users to bet on the potential of a creators or brands.

Investment teams: Backing from institutions

Metaverse is a story that just begins to unfold and no one can image how big the market can be.In the crypto world, the heavy-weight investors like Multicoin, Alameda, and Three Arrows all chose to bet on REALY in the early stages of the project.

• In April 2021, Multicoin Capital led the investment, Alameda Research and SNZ Capital participated in the seed round
• In May 2021, Three Arrows Capital led the investment, District0x and others participated in the strategic round
• In December 2021, Foresight Ventures, along with Zonff, joined the party

Mable Jiang, the partner of Multicoin, published an article after leading the investment in April , in which she explained the reason to invest is the branding strategy of REALY .

Foresight sees the potential of the niche market chosen by REALY, the street culture in which a new group of audience can try the metaverse. In 2022, the virtual city KOOOLA public beta will be launched, as well as the public sales of land. You can develop your own bussiness, or try a different carrer, or even design your streetwear in REALY!

Market competition: Differentiated product

Although we are seeing more and more “metaverse”, REALY has differentiate itself with its focus on street culture and token incentives to encourage mass adoption.

Conclusion

It may still take time for technologies like VR, AI, and 5G to mature before we can jump into metaverse. Still, REALY offers a new way to enter a metaverse. By focusing on Street Culture, REALY propose metaverse as a venue to enjoy Fashion and live a new life.This brand new business model may still need time to verify but the strong endorsement from the investments has armed REALY capital and resources for trial-and-error.

Source: Forsight Ventures