The total addressable market for the metaverse could be between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030,

Up to five billion users. However, Citi also noted that "getting to that market level is going to require sizeable infrastructure investment."

The metaverse is a series of interconnected three-dimensional spaces created by the combination of virtual reality, augmented reality and the internet.

There will soon be a demand for a content streaming environment in the metaverse that is 1,000 times greater than content streaming environments are today

Bank said, and investment will be required in areas such as storage, network infrastructure, consumer hardware and game development platforms.

The concept of the metaverse isn't new, analysts at the bank noted. Rising network speeds and the massive growth in sales of (NFTs) have had a big influence on the metaverse 

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are digital assets on a blockchain that represent ownership of virtual or physical items. They can be traded and sold.

Citi said , but it is possible the metaverse will be moving towards becoming “the next generation of Internet 3.0 

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