Fidelity Launches ‘Gamified’ Educational Metaverse Experience

Fidelity has launched a new financial educational tool called The Fidelity Stack that it said Thursday uses gamification to teach investors the basics of investing in exchange-traded funds including its new metaverse-themed fund.

The Fidelity Metaverse ETF (FMET), announced April 12, is being listed by the firm this week on the Nasdaq Global Market. The new ETF can “help investors invest in the evolution and future of the internet,” Fidelity said last week.

The Fidelity Stack was built in Decentraland, a browser-based 3D virtual world where visitors can purchase virtual plots of land as nonfungible tokens with MANA cryptocurrency, which uses the Ethereum blockchain. Decentraland was created by developers Ariel Meilich and Esteban Ordano, and the nonprofit Decentraland Foundation raised funding for additional development.

The Fidelity Stack features a multi-level design including a virtual lobby, dance floor and rooftop sky garden for users to explore virtually.

In the “Invest Quest” at The Fidelity Stack, users are “challenged to traverse the building learning the basics of ETF investing while gathering ‘orbs’ along the way, much like they would in an online game, Fidelity noted.

The new platform represents the latest initiative by Fidelity to “create innovative ways to serve customer needs, especially the next generation of customers, as it becomes the first leading brokerage firm to offer an educational metaverse experience,” it said Thursday in a news release.

Fidelity previously launched a Fidelity Reddit page and TikTok account to provide additional resources for younger investors to improve their financial knowledge, it noted.

The company also posted a Viewpoints article, “Enter the metaverse,” to help investors better understand the metaverse and its associated investment opportunities, Fidelity pointed out.

“Fidelity is constantly innovating as we re-imagine what it looks like to engage with customers as a trusted financial services company in the future,” Kathryn Condon, head of marketing channels and emerging platforms at Fidelity, said in a statement. “As Web 3.0 takes shape, Fidelity is excited to bring our expertise in financial education to this new virtual space.”

She added: “The way we engage with each other and with our money is rapidly changing, whether that’s through the rise of blockchain technology or development of a new digital universe. Our foray into the metaverse is designed with this in mind.”

“We’re part of a dynamic shift as young people take control of their finances in new ways,” according to David Dintenfass, chief marketing officer and head of emerging customers at Fidelity.

“The next generation seeks out financial education in all the places they spend time, whether physical or virtual,” he said in a statement. “We’re committed to serve customers in these decentralized communities as they transform and grow.”

(Image via Fidelity)