The Sandbox is one of the most successful blockchain games that offer a metaverse experience in a Minecraft-styled environment. In 2021 the Sandbox and the SAND token peaked in value and its user base went through the roof. Needless to say, the year after was not so bright even though the platform improved a lot of things. Most recently, the metaverse platform entered a partnership agreement that changes things a little bit and brought back some of the hype.

What are Saudi Arabia’s plans for the metaverse and with the Sandbox?

A mysterious agreement

A memorandum of understanding isn’t exactly a contract but more of a declaration of intent. However, this declaration becomes more valuable if one or more parties signing the MOU are considered to be big players in their field.

Yesterday, Sandbox co-founder and COO Sebastien Borget shared an important moment on Linkedin, when he was signing an MOU with the Saudi Arabia Digital Government Authority (DGA). According to Borget, both parties are looking forward to exploring and supporting each other’s metaverse activities on a mutual basis.

Once that information was out in the public, speculations on social media went wild. Is Saudi Arabia exclusively building on the Sandbox? Will they adopt SAND as a currency? Of course not, but the country is not the first to actively engage with blockchain-based applications. Dubai’s regulatory body already announced last year to build a digital HQ in the Sandbox. While the MOU is not specific about their plans, we might see a similar collaboration in the future.

SAND price went through the roof

The breaking news also had quite an impact on the price of the SAND token which jumped up by 30% yesterday. In the meantime, the rally has cooled off a little bit, and a correction set in today that is continuing at the time of writing.

It is worth mentioning that the project is on the verge of a token unlock. During the event, a certain portion of the token supply will become available to the respective holders. Depending on the market conditions, an unlock can have an impact on a token’s price.

The next unlock for the Sandbox will happen on February 14^th and a little bit more than 12% of the total supply will become available. A total of more than 372 million SAND will be distributed among the team, the company, the foundation, advisors, and buyers of the strategic sale and the seed round. That puts the value of the unlocked tokens north of $320 million taking the current price into account.