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Decentraland (MANA)

History, technology and key data — no opinions, no advice

Price of Decentraland today in real time

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Historical price evolution of Decentraland

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Origin and evolution

Decentraland was born in 2015 from the hands of Argentinians Ari Meilich, entrepreneur and former Philosophy student in Buenos Aires and New York, and Esteban Ordano, computer engineer with previous experience as a contributor in Bitcoin and Ethereum and founder of Smart Contract Solutions. The project began as a pixelated 2D network that assigned pixels to users through proof of work, laying the foundations of what would subsequently evolve towards a three-dimensional metaverse.

In August 2017, Decentraland carried out its ICO (Initial Coin Offering) on the Ethereum network, raising more than 24 million US dollars (86,260 ETH). During this initial offering, more than 1,000 million MANA tokens in ERC-20 format were sold in just 35 seconds at a price that ranged between 0.024 and 0.04 USD. With these funds, the team initiated the development of the 3D world that would characterise the project. In January 2018 the first LAND parcel auction was held in Genesis City, the first metropolis of Decentraland composed of 90,601 parcels. In this inaugural auction 34,356 parcels were sold for more than 161 million MANA, equivalent to approximately 30 million US dollars.

In October 2018, Decentraland established a mutual investment agreement with Animoca Brands valued at 0.5 million dollars per company, which included the exchange of MANA tokens. Development continued until February 2020, when the public opening of Decentraland's mainnet occurred. At that moment, the management of the project passed into the hands of the Decentraland Foundation, a non-profit organisation, whilst the founders Meilich and Ordano retired from their executive roles to assume advisory functions.

The year 2021 marked several important milestones for the platform. In March, Decentraland organised the first Metaverse Fashion Week with the participation of recognised brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, Tommy Hilfiger and Etro. In October of that year a bridge was created between Decentraland and Polygon (Layer 2 of Ethereum) to reduce the cost of transactions. Also in October 2021, the group Tokens.com acquired a parcel in the Fashion Street district of Decentraland for 618,000 MANA (approximately 2.43 million dollars), establishing the highest price paid for a virtual parcel on the platform up to that moment. During this period, the metaverse attracted global brands such as Samsung, Adidas, Atari and PricewaterhouseCoopers, and MANA reached its all-time high.

However, the project faced controversies in October 2022 when DappRadar published that Decentraland had 38 "daily active users" measured as unique wallets interacting with smart contracts. Decentraland refuted this figure, alleging approximately 60,000 monthly active users and between 8,000 and 10,000 daily according to its own methodology, which included movements between parcels without on-chain transactions. During 2022-2023, coinciding with the crypto winter, MANA experienced a fall exceeding 90% in its price and LAND plots lost value significantly. The metaverse sector in general suffered a severe contraction during this period, exemplified by Meta, which spent more than 70,000 million dollars on Reality Labs with scarce adoption results.

Between 2024 and 2025, the team and the DAO launched Decentraland 2.0 with an improved desktop client, the White Paper 2.0 and a Manifesto of self-sustainability centred on creators, events and economic activity instead of land speculation. During this period regular events such as the Metaverse Fashion Week, the Music Festival and Art Week were established. In October 2025 DCL Regenesis Labs was established as an operative entity within the DAO ecosystem. By April 2026, during the Metaverse Fashion Week 2026, external sources estimated approximately 5,000 daily active users, maintaining Decentraland as a reference in the blockchain metaverse sector, although with limited adoption.

How it works

Decentraland functions as a decentralised 3D virtual world built upon the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains, where users can explore, create and trade through digital avatars. The ecosystem is structured around 90,601 plots of digital land called LAND, each represented as a non-fungible token (NFT) under the ERC-721 standard, which guarantees unique and indivisible ownership of each plot. Owners of these plots can develop diverse content such as games, art galleries, virtual shops and event spaces, creating an interactive metaverse where other users can participate and consume these experiences.

The economic system operates through two main assets: MANA, a fungible ERC-20 token that serves as payment currency and governance tool, and LAND, the NFTs that represent territorial ownership. To acquire LAND directly from the protocol, users must burn MANA tokens, permanently removing them from circulation, whilst secondary market transactions are also settled in MANA. This burning mechanism affects the circulating supply of MANA, which currently stands at around 1,940 million tokens out of a maximum of 2,190 million. Additionally, marketplace fees are permanently burnt, creating constant deflationary pressure on the token.

Project governance is managed through a DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation) built with the Aragon platform, where MANA holders can participate by proposing and voting on initiatives related to developer grants, modifications to platform rules, treasury fund allocation and protocol changes. The voting weight of each participant is proportional to the amount of MANA tokens they keep locked in the system, establishing a democratic participation mechanism weighted by token holdings.

Key data
Supply / Emission
2,194,058,611
Symbol
MANA
Type
Token ERC-20
Blockchain
Ethereum (ERC-20)
Launch
2020-02-20
Creator
Ariel Meilich, Esteban Ordano
Status
Activa

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