Report from Money20/20: Fintech companies have questions about the future of the metaverse

• The metaverse was a hot topic at Money20/20 Europe this week.
• But fintech companies are divided on the potential impact and adoption of the metaverse.

The future of the metaverse was one of the leading topics at the Money20/20 conference in Amsterdam this week, but fintech and banking companies were divided on what it will actually bring. Some speakers spoke optimistically about its future, touting its potential for creativity and innovation, while others doubted whether Web3 would really have widespread, mass-market adoption.

"I think we're talking about something that doesn't have a product-market fit yet," said Dmitry Tokarev, CEO of Copper, which develops digital asset infrastructure.

One of the biggest hurdles is getting access to headsets.

"The reality is that it's just the interface," Gareth Genner, the CEO and founder of AI biometrics company Trust Stamp, said. The hardware is "not there for mass consumer adoption" yet, he added.

Steve Suarez, global head of innovation at HSBC, said that this ultimately could widen the digital divide. According to a March report by Citi Ventures, a "device-agnostic metaverse" that includes phones, computers, and game consoles could have a total addressable market of 5 billion users. When limited to just owners of VR and AR headsets, this market would be restricted to 1 billion, per the report.

Ultimately the metaverse "doesn't exist yet," Tokarev said. "The problem is that there is no vision outside of Mark [Zuckerberg's]'s vision for metaverse," he added.

"It reminds me of back in 1990 when I tried to explain what the internet was," Suarez said.

Because of this, the future of the metaverse is hard to predict, though Suarez said "it's never gonna replace real life."

Antoni Trenchev, cofounder and managing partner of crypto lender Nexo, questioned whether the metaverse would just be a "supplement" to the real-life economy or whether it would grow beyond that.

Currently the metaverse is "a little bit of a money grab" for real companies launching real-world assets in the metaverse, Trenchev said.

"Marketing is really the first obvious use case of the metaverse," Zec said. "But I would not say it's a gimmick," she added, comparing it to the launch of social media advertising.

But it's important for banks to enter into the space, too, the speakers at Money20/20 agreed. In March, HSBC said it was entering the Metaverse to engage with customers in Web3.

Gartner estimates that by 2026, a quarter of people will spend at least one hour a day in the Metaverse.

"For banks to be relevant, they need to be where their customers are spending their time and money," Zec said, adding that banks "are either building the metaverse or building in the metaverse." Binance, for example, is launching incubation and investment programs for Web3 builders and starting partnerships to build infrastructure, said Zoe Wei, the company's head of fan token and Binance Connect.

Referring to general uncertainty around the metaverse, Suarez said: "You may not like it, but at least understand it."