HTC only company spared by Meta decline

HTC, a VR headset manufacturer based in Taiwan and considered a Metaverse-proxy stock, was spared Meta’s gargantuan losses. Even though their Vive headsets are a key component of the VR-based vision of the metaverse, their stock rose 5% in Asian hours today as the markets in Taipei re-opened after the Lunar New Year, CoinDesk reported.

The Taipei-listed stock added 5% to its value to NTD 67 through the local trading day.

Meta lost $200B, dragged metaverse tokens down   

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Last week, the former Facebook’s AR and VR division announced a $10 billion loss, resulting in a market cap decline of $200 billion. Its stock slipped over 25% thereafter, the biggest single-day decline yet.

As reported earlier, this caused metaverse tokens to slide. On the day Meta posted its disappointing quarterly earnings, Axie Infinity (AXS/USD), The Sandbox (SAND/USD), and Gala (GALA/USD) lost more than 10%.

Changing sentiment

Investor sentiment on metaverse cryptos has shifted since. At the time of writing, AXS was up 12%, Decentraland (MANA/USD) was up 8%, and GALA posted a 5% gain. SAND was also in the green.

Over the past 24 hours, AXS had $2.6 million in short liquidations and $1.5 million in long ones. MANA had approximately $4.3 million in short liquidations over that time period.

HTC has yet to turn a profit

The Taiwanese manufacturer has yet to turn a profit despite the newfound interest in its VR headsets. It faces cutthroat competition from other Android handset manufacturers, driving its phones down to a market share of less than 1%.

Huge local support for headset company

Facebook announced its rebranding in October last year. At that time, HTC saw its stock rally and registered gains of almost 150% from mid-October to the end of the year. The company enjoys great support from the local community.

On the Taiwanese “Reddit” PTT, many claim it’s impossible to achieve the true vision of the metaverse without Vive. HTC has also been referred to as Taiwan’s version of GameStop. The annual sales volume of the VR headsets is moderate although they launched back in 2015 and sales are increasing.