The Sandbox secured strategic partnerships in Q1 2025, announcing collaborations with ATEEZ and Jurassic World to expand branded content and immersive experiences on the platform.
SAND’s market cap peaked at $1.7 billion on Jan. 6, 2025, with the token price reaching $0.70 before ultimately ending Q1 at $0.27. The 50.0% QoQ decline reflected broader market conditions, such as ETH’s 46.0% drop and metaverse-related headwinds.
LAND sales totaled 146,366 SAND, concentrated in the secondary market. This was also supported by private deals and a public LAND auction using the GBM bid-to-earn model.
At the end of Q1, 0.8% of SAND’s circulating supply was staked, reflecting 54.5 million SAND staked daily, despite macroeconomic weakness and overall metaverse downtrends in Q1.
Alpha Season 5 launched on March 31, 2025, featuring over 40 experiences from more than 20 partners, driving a surge in user engagement heading into Q2.
Primer
The Sandbox is a social gaming metaverse platform where users play, create, and monetize unique experiences alongside their favorite brands, IPs, and celebrities across gaming, entertainment, music, art, and more. The Sandbox leverages Web3 technologies to enable end-user creation and creator economies, differentiating it from existing platforms by providing Players and Creators with true ownership of their assets, creations, and rewards as NFTs. Key tokenized and gaming features within the project’s ecosystem include:
SAND - An ERC-20 token and digital in-game currency used for purchases, monetization, and asset creation. The total token supply is capped at 3 billion.
LAND - Digital ownable land within The Sandbox Metaverse. LAND is an ERC-721 token deployed and available on the Polygon network.
ESTATE - A combination of LANDs to create a larger plot.
ASSET - Created using the VoxEdit application, these assets are converted to ERC-1155 tokens once uploaded to The Sandbox marketplace.
AVATARS - ERC-721 tokens that are playable characters within The Sandbox.
CATALYST - ERC-1155 tokens burned to define an ASSETs tier/scarcity.
Game Maker - A toolbox that enables users to create 3D games and experiences.
VoxEdit - Software used to create and animate equipment and other gaming assets.
Game Client - Enables players to play experiences created with the Game Maker.
The Sandbox operates digital real estate known as LAND (NFTs), which serves as the foundation for interactive gaming, hosting metaverse experiences, and generating player activity. There are over 166,464 plots of LAND on The Sandbox Map, the platform's virtual world grid, with each plot being 96x96 meters. These plots are NFTs that players can buy, sell, or use to create unique experiences. Content Creators use LAND to build immersive gaming experiences, social hubs, and more, as well as develop and showcase content, making it one of the most valuable NFT assets within the ecosystem. To monetize their work, Creators must have their experience published to a plot of LAND on The Sandbox Map.
The Sandbox was initially launched as a 2D mobile game in 2012 by the software development company Pixowl before rebranding to a 3D metaverse game in May 2018. It offers Avatar-centric gameplay in the form of single and multiplayer experiences created by end users (UGC) and internal teams. Digital ownership plays a pivotal role in the overall ecosystem, offering a more robust in-game economy due to the tradeable nature of the SAND token and other assets within the ecosystem. Such assets include in-game, user-generated NFTs that can be used or sold on The Sandbox Marketplace or other notable NFT trading platforms.
The Sandbox recorded a market cap of $661.7 million at the end of Q1 2025, marking an approximate 50.0% QoQ decline from $1.3 billion on Dec. 31, 2024. The price of SAND followed a similar trajectory, closing Q1 at $0.27, down 50.4% QoQ from $0.54 at the end of Q4.
This downturn aligned with broader declines in token prices and market caps across the cryptocurrency and metaverse sectors, driven by weakened investor sentiment and slowing market activity. Notably, The Sandbox reached its quarterly peak on Jan. 6, 2025, recording a high of $1.7 billion in market cap and a price of $0.70 per SAND.
Sales Volume
In Q1 2025, The Sandbox recorded $767,539 (1.8 million SAND) in LAND sales volume, with activity driven by the secondary market. From Feb. 12-14, 2025, The Sandbox held a public LAND auction using the GBM bid-to-earn model. The auction included 1x1, 3x3, and 6x6 plots, allowing community members to bid with the chance to earn rewards if they were outbid. This model incentivized participation by compensating non-winning bidders and increasing auction engagement.
The Sandbox facilitated $61,500 (146,366 SAND) in private LAND sales, specifically $13,500 (32,000 SAND) in January and $48,000 (114,366 SAND) in February, reflecting efforts to onboard through direct strategic partners.
Private auctions (invite-only bidding on premium LAND or ESTATE parcels)
Public auctions (open bidding via platforms like GBM and MOOAR)
Compared to Q4 2024, when primary LAND sales totaled $902,000 and secondary sales reached $1.5 million, overall sales volumes moderated, aligning with a period of adjusted market demand and a lack of primary market sales.
Strategic Expansion: Acquisition of QED
In January, The Sandbox acquired QED, a Romanian software development firm with six years of experience building scalable software systems. QED had previously worked with The Sandbox as a trusted external provider, contributing to core technical development across metaverse products. The acquisition formalizes this relationship, bringing QED’s team in-house under the newly established Sandbox Romania. The move signals The Sandbox’s continued investment in its developer infrastructure and global expansion strategy, reinforcing its ability to secure, integrate, and retain backend development efforts.
Quantitative Analysis
As of March 31, 2025, 0.76% of SAND’s circulating supply was staked, reflecting a 20.0% decline from the 0.95% recorded at the end of Q4 2024. The average daily amount of SAND staked also decreased, falling 33.9% QoQ from 82.5 million to 54.5 million, a drop partially influenced by broader market headwinds and waning interest in gaming-related staking activities. The non-LAND owners' staking pool continued to represent the majority share, accounting for 37.7 million SAND, while the LAND owners' pool contributed 16.8 million SAND.
The Sandbox Marketplace is the central hub where users can buy, sell, and trade assets (such as NFTs) using SAND. It plays an integral role in the platform’s ecosystem, enabling creators to monetize their digital assets and giving Players tools for customization and engagement.
In addition to listing assets for sale, creators can purchase CATALYSTS (ERC-1155 tokens designed to define an asset’s rarity, tier, and properties), which are required to mint new assets for the marketplace (with one catalyst required per asset minted). These assets include props, characters, and in-game items that enrich gameplay experiences. Players use the marketplace to purchase items to customize their Avatars, while LAND owners can buy or sell LAND plots that form the foundation of The Sandbox’s virtual world.
In Q1 2025, The Sandbox recorded an average of 12.1 daily active LAND buyers and 148.6 daily active non-LAND buyers. While LAND buyer activity remained relatively steady across the quarter, non-LAND buyer activity surged in March, leading up to the launch of Alpha Season 5, with average daily non-LAND buyers rising from 37.0 non-LAND asset buyers on March 17, 2025, to 2,907.0 buyers two days later on March 19, 2025. This was due in part to Players purchasing their Alpha Season 5 Alpha Pass and Jurassic World Eggs ahead of the season’s launch. Notably, 612.0 daily active non-LAND asset buyers were recorded between March 1-17, 2025, meanwhile 10,906.0 non-LAND buyers were recorded between March 18-31, 2025. Alpha Season 5, described in more detail below, launched on March 31, 2025.
LAND NFTs maintained a floor price of 0.082 ETH on OpenSea, reflecting their continued scarcity and premium status within the ecosystem. In contrast, non-LAND assets carried a floor price of <0.001 ETH, making them more accessible to a broader range of buyers. While LAND remains a high-value asset class for The Sandbox ecosystem, non-LAND NFTs drove the majority of transaction volume and buyer activity in Q1.
Additional Developments
Alpha Season 5
The Sandbox’s Alpha Season 5, featuring Jurassic World, launched on March 31, 2025. It was a six-week event featuring over 40 unique Experiences from more than 20 partner brands alongside user-generated content.
Alpha Season 5 introduced several gameplay innovations, notably the Jurassic World: Dinosaur Preserve, where Players took on the role of sanctuary staff managing dynamic challenges like sandstorms, wildfires, and evolving dinosaur ecosystems. This Season also introduced Abilities, a new feature that assigns unique behaviors to specific items Players can discover and equip in-game. These Abilities enhanced gameplay by enabling more expressive, dynamic, and challenging player experiences.
Progression during Alpha Season 5, and other Seasons, was tracked through a Battle Pass with 30 levels. Players earned Ethos Points (EP) by completing five quest types: Normal, Time Trial, Adventure, Hardcore, and Premium.
Importantly, Alpha Season 5 had just begun during the Q1 2025 reporting cutoff. As such, full performance metrics (e.g., total player count, cumulative quests completed, and aggregate SAND distributed) are not yet finalized. By the end of the season, Players who have completed their Battle Pass will have earned up to 710 SAND and over 65 NFTs. The event’s scale, brand partnerships, and layered incentive mechanisms signal refinement in the project’s metaverse strategy.
New Brand Partners
In Q1, The Sandbox announced two major brand collaborations: ATEEZ and Jurassic World. The Sandbox partnered with KQ Entertainment to launch an ATEEZ-themed experience, including a limited-edition Avatar collection and two immersive worlds, “ATEEZ - FEVER / TREASURE” and “ATEEZ - THE WORLD.” Later in the quarter, on March 18, The Sandbox teamed up with Universal Products & Experiences and Amblin Entertainment to introduce Jurassic World content, featuring exclusive digital collectibles and a flagship game titled “Jurassic World: Dinosaur Preserve.” Set in a dinosaur sanctuary, the game allows Players to manage operations as members of the Dinosaur Protection Group, with gameplay centered around exploration, collection, and quests.
Builders' Challenge 3
The third installment of the Builders’ Challenge launched on Feb. 26, 2025, and spanned four weeks. The initiative allowed Creators to earn SAND, with each submitted experience eligible for rewards of up to 50,000 SAND. Incentives were structured to ensure fair competition across varying experience and skill levels. The program serves as a strategic onboarding mechanism, encouraging new Creators to join the ecosystem, publish experiences on the map, and contribute to the platform’s in-game economy by driving content creation and engagement.
The challenge saw participation from Creators based in over 50 countries, with over 500 new experiences published to The Sandbox Map. The top performer earned over 110,000 SAND across multiple published experiences, while the top 10 collectively earned nearly 500,000 SAND.
Platform & Creator Tools
In Q1, The Sandbox released Game Maker 0.11, an update aimed at improving the creation and gameplay experience across the platform. The release introduced genre-specific templates to accelerate game design and unveiled new asset kits from partner brands. The kits can be found in the free-to-use Asset Library, which allows access to a wide range of brands such as The Smurfs, Chupa Chups, BLOND:ISH, Care Bears, and Atari. Notably, every experience featured in Alpha Season 5 was built using Game Maker 0.11
DAO Updates
Throughout Q1 2025, The Sandbox DAO voted on six proposals. These proposals collectively attracted 1,287 votes, averaging approximately 215 votes per proposal, reflecting consistent governance participation. The DAO’s implementation costs vary by proposal and are disbursed monthly as projects reach key milestones or upon completion. For a complete overview of The Sandbox DAO, see the project’s Snapshot governance page.
Two proposals from Q1 are highlighted below:
SIP-19 (Feb. 5, 2025) - Funded WakeUp Labs to support user-generated content (UGC) workflows within The Sandbox ecosystem. Rather than introducing an entirely new showcase product, the goal of SIP-19 is to improve the accessibility, discoverability, and incentivization of UGC by streamlining infrastructure external to the core game client. The proposal followed a community-led vote between two candidates: WakeUp Labs, with a budget of $57,750, and The Council, which requested $150,000. The DAO selected WakeUp Labs, whose approach emphasized cost-efficiency, transparency, technical feasibility, and a clear delivery timeline. The scope includes the creation of a standalone website aimed at increasing creator visibility, improving access to player-built experiences, and integrating SAND-based incentives. This effort builds on existing UGC initiatives and seeks to implement The Sandbox’s creator ecosystem without duplicating functionality.
SIP-23 (March 19, 2025) - Established The Sandbox DAO’s 2025 budget and strategic direction. Drawing on 2024 lessons, the proposal restructured funding across six categories: 37.5% for Web3 ecosystem integration, 23% for game creation, 16% for community initiatives, and smaller allocations for education, operations, and reserves. In 2024, the DAO approved 10 proposals, managing 1.5 million SAND in SIPs alongside 950,000 SAND in operations, largely hedged in stablecoins. SIP-23 emphasizes flexibility, strategic alignment, and risk management, with quarterly updates planned to maintain transparency and track progress.
Closing Summary
Q1 2025 reflected steady progress across The Sandbox’s financial and ecosystem indicators in the context of broader market volatility. Circulating market cap and token price declined 50.0% and 50.4% QoQ, respectively, in line with ETH’s 46.0% drop during the same period. Despite this, LAND sales reached $767,539, supported by targeted private deals, reflecting continued demand for digital real estate.
The quarter featured new collaborations with ATEEZ and Jurassic World, expanding the brand ecosystem through immersive experiences and limited-edition digital collectibles. The Sandbox also strengthened its infrastructure by acquiring QED, a Romanian development firm that now operates as Sandbox Romania.
On the product side, Game Maker 0.11 introduced new asset kits and creation tools, enabling all Alpha Season 5 content to be built within the updated environment. Creator engagement remained active, with over 500 new experiences published during Builders’ Challenge 3. As Alpha Season 5 launched at the end of the quarter, the project entered Q2 with a broadened footprint and clear momentum across platform, product, and partner initiatives.
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