The banking investment firm, HSBC has launched a fund to take over investment opportunities in the metaverse for its affluent clients in Asian region of Hong Kong and Singapore.
The fund is established at a time when several financial services firms are exploring everyone’s latest obsession- the $800 billion virtual reality market.
As per reports, HSBC recently claimed that its Metaverse Discretionary Strategy portfolio which is managed by its asset management offshoot, will focus on investing within the metaverse ecosystem across domains like infrastructure, virtualisation, computing, experience and discovery, and interface.
Lina Lim, regional head of discretionary and funds for investments and wealth solutions, Asia Pacific, at HSBC believes that the metaverse ecosystem is rapidly evolving even though it is still at an early stage.
“We see many exciting opportunities in this space as companies of different backgrounds and sizes are flocking into the ecosystem,” she said.
HSBC explained its discretionary portfolio was formed to cater to its high net worth and ultra-high net worth professional investors as well as for recognized investor clients in Hong Kong and Singapore.
In March, HSBC revealed it was buying a plot of virtual land called LAND in Sandbox, the online gaming space.
Recently, HSBC confirmed it is investing $3.5 billion into its wealth and personal banking business in the direction of its aim to become Asia’s top wealth manager by 2025.
HSBC now becomes the second international bank to explore the metaverse platform. In a similar instance, JP Morgan too had forayed into the metaverse with a virtual lounge for a “$1 Trillion opportunity” on the Decentraland.
