What happened The Sandbox (CRYPTO: SAND) and Decentraland (CRYPTO: MANA) soared 38% and 30%, respectively, on Wednesday as investors' excitement for metaverse-related cryptocurrencies reached a fever pitch. So what An increasing number of people believe the metaverse will be the next evolution of the internet. They envision an immersive 3D virtual world in which people work and play, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and other cutting-edge technologies. While the idea of a metaverse has been around for decades, the thought that it could soon come to fruition gained steam after Facebook chose to change its name to Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: FB) in October. The social media giant plans to spend as much as $10 billion to develop metaverse-building technologies. Since that time, investors have sought out ways to profit from these exciting developments. Image source: Getty Images. Decentraland is one of the leading virtual environments. Users can create scenes, structures, and other attractions on digital real estate. They can also buy and trade goods on digital marketplaces. To do so, they exchange MANA, the native token of Decentraland's virtual world. On Tuesday, a virtual plot of real estate in Decentraland sold for a whopping $2.4 million. The sale helped to boost excitement for digital real estate among investors. It also helped to drive up the price of MANA, as well other metaverse-related tokens like The Sandbox's SAND. Now what Excitement is also building for The Sandbox Alpha. The multiweek event is slated to begin on Nov. 29. Players will have a chance to enter The Sandbox metaverse for the first time and earn rewards, such as SAND tokens and exclusive non-fungible tokens (NFTs). 10 stocks we like better than The SandboxWhen our award-winning analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* They just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and The Sandbox wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of November 10, 2021 Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Meta Platforms, Inc. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source