(Yicai Global) Dec. 27 -- Shares in Inmyshow Digital Technology Group plunged by the exchange-imposed limit today after the Chinese property management firm and operator of a metaverse real estate development said that the price of prime virtual plots has shrunk by 90 percent, trapping many investors.

Inmyshow’s share price [SHA:600556] closed down 10 percent at CNY12.92 (USD2) today.

The price of top-tier properties in the Honnverse, which offers 350,000 lots in six different tiers, has plummeted to around CNY10,000 (USD1,570) from CNY100,000, the Economic View reported on Dec. 25.

Beijing-based Inmyshow sold a digital island on second-hand e-marketplace Xianyu for CNY150,000 (USD23,541) earlier this month. Some properties were even changing hands for as much as CNY500,000 (USD78,470), the report said.

However, Alibaba Group Holding-backed Xianyu has since blocked searches with the keywords ‘Metaverse’ and ‘Honnverse’ and virtual properties can no longer be found on the site. As a result, the price of pre-owned digital land has plunged online, with top properties only reselling for CNY10,000, the report said.

Globally, though, e-land is still hot. Republic Realm, a metaverse real estate firm, recently bought a plot of land in the virtual world The Sandbox for a record USD4.3 million, enough to buy two houses in the center of Beijing. Republic Realm now owns around 2,500 digital lots on 19 different metaverse platforms.

Both Decentraland, a decentralized three-dimensional virtual reality platform, and The Sandbox saw unprecedented traffic and transactions last month, with virtual land deals reaching USD228 million, the best month to-date and up nearly seven times from October, according to Dappradar.

Traditional developers are also buying in. Hong Kong real estate tycoon and Chief Executive of New World Development Adrian Cheng Chi-kong is said to have bought one of the largest plots in Sandbox earlier this month for an unknown price.

The value of virtual properties will evaporate if the platforms disappear in the future, a metaverse researcher said. Investors should stay rational because digital real estate is unregulated and not protected by law, he added.

Editor: Kim Taylor