Sandbox's native SAND token rose from eight-month lows on Thursday after the metaverse announced a partnership with Lionsgate Studios.
The SAND jumped as much as 20% to $0,9715 after the announcement, although it pared some gains to trade as low as $0,8647. The news helped SAND break a seven-day losing streak amid weakness in the broader cryptocurrency market. Lionsgate is one of the largest independent studios in the United States and owns properties such as Hellboy, Rambo and The Expendables – which will now be featured in The Sandbox. O metaverse will now set up an area dedicated to Lionsgate's media properties called “City of Action”.
Under the partnership, Lionsgate's “Action City” will feature popular licensed properties owned by the studio as well as its longtime collaborator Millennium Films. Sandbox claims that the partnership makes Lionsgate the first major Hollywood studio to enter the metaverse. But it's far from the metaverse's first prolific partnership. The virtual platform features content from Adidas, Snoop Dogg, The Smurfs and has also sold land to large companies such as HSBC. No financial details of the Lionsgate deal were revealed. The Sandbox, owned by the gaming giant blockchain Animoca Brands, is looking to raise capital at a valuation of over $4 billion.
The Sandbox and its peers have seen a drastic decline in token prices this year as cryptocurrency markets have crashed. But their support for an established metaverse, especially for The Sandbox and peer Decentraland, may give them better prospects than their smaller peers. In times of rising inflation and high interest rates, investors often look to projects with a tangible product or service – something Sandbox and most of its metaverse peers can attest to. This may give SAND some resiliency against ongoing problems in the cryptocurrency market🇧🇷 Still, the token has lost around 85% of its value in 2022.
