Crypto is booming again. Bitcoin is near record highs, Walmart and Amazon are reportedly exploring stablecoins, Robinhood is tokenizing shares of public and private companies, and NFTs—once left for dead—are stirring back to life. Even crypto-powered “network states” are inching toward reality.

But one star from the last bull run hasn’t joined the rally: the metaverse.

Back in 2020 and 2021, the metaverse was the tech industry’s favorite toy—an immersive digital frontier where we’d work, play, and shop. Facebook rebranded to Meta, VR headsets flew off shelves, and internet searches for “metaverse” jumped 7,200% in a single year. JPMorgan called it a $1 trillion opportunity that would “likely infiltrate every sector.”

Decentraland was among the breakout stars of the metaverse, a bustling

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