Trump Metaverse Bid: Can It Rekindle the VR Fire Meta Lit in 2021 for 2025 and beyond?
Disclaimer:
Donald Trump’s trademark filing for a metaverse and NFT platform is confirmed; however, the actual development, launch, and impact of such a project remain speculative. This article explores potential industry outcomes if these plans proceed and is intended for informational purposes only.
Trump’s Metaverse Bid: Can It Rekindle the VR Fire Meta Lit in 2021?
On February 24, 2025, DTTM Operations, owned by U.S. President Donald Trump, filed a trademark application for a “TRUMP”-branded metaverse and NFT marketplace, envisioning virtual training, transportation, and branded experiences secured by NFTs tied to Trump’s identity, as reported by Grafa on March 3, 2025. As Meta’s Reality Labs reports a $4.97 billion Q4 2024 loss, the metaverse’s enterprise potential wavers. Facebook’s 2021 rebranding to Meta sparked a VR gold rush—could Trump’s filing do the same for a market where Meta, HTC, and Valve now compete?
Meta’s Reality Labs, born from the $2 billion Oculus acquisition in 2014, has lost over $60 billion since 2020, with Q4 2024 revenue of $1.1 billion eclipsed by a $4.97 billion operating loss. In 2022, it shed $13.72 billion on $2.16 billion in revenue, down from $2.27 billion in 2021. HTC’s Vive shipments, per IDC, trailed Meta’s 55.2% Q3 2023 share, holding below 4%. Valve’s Index, a PC VR leader, saw its relevance fade behind Meta’s 46% Quest 2 dominance by 2023.
Corporate Sector Boost: VR’s Post-Rebrand Surge
Meta’s 2021 Rebranding: Catalyst for a Corporate VR Boom and Its Fallout
Facebook’s October 2021 shift to Meta unleashed a VR frenzy, driving an estimated 50% surge in Quest sales within months and lifting Reality Labs’ revenue to $2.27 billion. This rebrand not only ignited consumer interest but also catalyzed a corporate VR boom, with enterprises rapidly embracing virtual collaboration and training solutions.
Accenture deployed Oculus headsets to 60,000 employees for onboarding and meetings, cutting travel costs and hinting at significant savings, while PwC purchased Sandbox land for upwards of $10,000 to pilot VR training hubs, later reporting a 40% efficiency gain in staff upskilling. Microsoft Mesh, launched in preview the same year, saw enterprise adoption spike, with Mesh-enabled Teams usage rising 20% by 2022 as firms like Chevron tested virtual safety drills.
After the closure of Facebook Spaces, Meta’s Launched Horizon Workrooms attracting early adopters like Accenture for virtual strategy sessions, further contributing to Reality Labs’ peak 2021 revenue. Cointelegraph also noted a 13.4% surge in the metaverse token market cap to $12.36 billion within 24 hours of the rebrand, signaling widespread investor and enterprise fervor. However, by 2023, U.S. VR sales slumped 40% to $664 million as the initial hype cooled. Trump’s filing could reignite momentum, leveraging his brand—bolstered by 2022 NFT sellouts—to drive adoption of standalone VR devices like Meta’s $299 Quest 3S (launched 2024), HTC’s Vive and more adoption to its Viverse-enabled platform, and potential integrations with Valve’s SteamVR for both PC and standalone ecosystems as it gears to launch a new Index 2 standalone, code named the “Deckard”, with its own OS.
Not to mention that the Meta rebranding in October 2021 also spurred a surge in AR devices interest. IDC reported a forecasted 85.6% growth in AR shipments to 845,000 units in 2024 in 2023, with the likes of XRreal getting a boost, despite the post slump.
Metaverse Platforms: Who’s Buying
In the swirling aftermath of Facebook’s audacious rebranding to Meta, the digital frontier saw an unprecedented land rush—albeit of the virtual kind. Leading the charge was Decentraland, an Ethereum-based platform where users snap up parcels of virtual real estate as NFTs, transforming empty digital plots into branded experiences. By the close of 2021, land sales had soared past $110 Million, drawing heavyweight institutions into this pixelated property boom. JPMorgan staked its claim with the launch of a sleek virtual lounge in early 2022, while Sotheby’s recreated its storied auction house, complete with art sales tailored for avatars and algorithms alike. As speculators and strategists flooded in, Decentraland’s MANA token skyrocketed 45% in a single day, a surge Reuters attributed to corporate gold fever.
Just beyond, The Sandbox, according to Technode Global, emerged as one of the metaverse’s construction zone of choice for enterprises, enabling businesses to build immersive VR flagships for a growing audience that hit five million users by 2024. In fact, Tech Radar reported that the Sandbox reached a $1b valuation cap with a $20m raise in capital in June of that same year. The platform’s appeal was undeniable: Adidas unveiled a virtual storefront in 2021, while PwC snapped up land to pilot cutting-edge training hubs for employees exploring new dimensions of workplace learning while Gucci and Forever 21 then followed suit. November of that year brought a staggering $106 million in virtual real estate deals, punctuated by rapper Snoop Dogg’s headline-making $450,000 purchase of a neighboring plot—a flex of both cultural cachet and corporate synergy. As investment poured in, SAND tokens rallied over 50%, Forbes reported, turning speculative play into real profit. All third while Walmart’s 2022 Roblox entry, per Raconteur, among other popular brands including Paris Hilton.
Outside the token-fueled euphoria, HTC’s Viverse pitched itself as one of the key metaverse’s practical workshop. Launched in 2022 with an eye on corporate collaboration, its VR spaces catered to education and industrial design. While the platform lacked the magnetic app ecosystem of Meta, its Vive headset shipments found steady support from enterprise clients through 2023, IDC data shows.
During similar times, China and Malaysia quickly moved to stake their own claims in this emerging digital realm, spurred by the urgency to keep pace with a technology poised to reshape economies. China’s response crystallized with the “Three-Year Action Plan for the Innovative Development of the Metaverse Industry (2023-2025),” launched by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in September 2023, though initial momentum built post-rebrand as tech giants like Baidu debuted “XiRang” in December 2021—a virtual platform blending Chinese heritage with futuristic design—driven by Meta’s spotlight on VR’s industrial potential. Malaysia, inspired by the same global fervor, saw Meta Universe Sdn Bhd emerge in Kuala Lumpur with a July 2022 platform launch, offering enterprises virtual collaboration spaces and a Web3 marketplace, a direct reaction to Meta’s rebrand igniting regional interest in metaverse applications beyond gaming.
NFTs and Virtual Land: Corporate Stakes
NFTs, unique blockchain assets, underpin virtual land ownership. In Decentraland, companies like Coca-Cola hosted NFT auctions in 2021. The proceeds benefited Special Olympics International and the auction included unique digital collectibles, such as a “Coca-Cola Bubble Jacket Wearable” for Decentraland avatars, per NFT Evening.
The Sandbox’s Atari land sales drew gaming firms as Meta’s rebrand accelerated this—Forbes reported metaverse tokens like MANA (Decentraland) and SAND (The Sandbox) experienced significant surges. Reports indicate that MANA surged 261% over the week following the announcement. According to Reuters, NFT sales volume surged to $2.5 billion in the first half of 2021, reflecting growing interest in digital assets following Meta’s rebrand announcement.
Trump’s NFT framework, restricting content to his approval, could mirror this for enterprises—offering secure, branded VR spaces. His 2022 NFT success suggests firms might follow, as they did post-Meta, when virtual land became a corporate asset class.
The Enterprise Calculus
Meta’s $60 billion deficit since 2020 looms large. Trump’s “intent to use” filing lacks certainty, per Cointelegraph’s Josh Gerben, but could pivot VR toward business utility. Where Meta’s rebrand sparked a land rush as sales toped the Total virtual land sales across major platforms hit ~$500 million in 2021/2022 as per report by CNBC.
Since then, the industry has experienced significant challenges, including platform closures, layoffs, and a cooling market. Meta’s Reality Labs division has reported cumulative losses exceeding $60 billion since 2020. Microsoft’s AltspaceVR Metaverse ceased operations in March 2023, resulting in job losses as part of its 10,000 layoff plans at the time. The broader XR industry shed over thousands of layoffs in 2023 alone. Unity Technologies cut 1,800 roles in January 2024, linked to declining XR investments. U.S. VR hardware sales plummeted 40% in 2023, falling to $664 million. Roblox Corporation reported a consolidated net loss of over 221 million US dollars while the value and revenue of most Decentralized metaverse platforms slumped. These developments have left the metaverse’s enterprise promise on unsteady ground, until now?
Could it be that Trump’s brand may drive to secure to lift the eco-system, both the centralized and decentralized landscape should his plans be launched due to the positioning of his brand and resources although, let’s be clear, there are no confirmed framework as of yet nor confirmation that this project will ever see the light of day, but-what if?
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SOURCES
Meta Q4 2024 loss, $60 billion deficit, 2025 capex: here
Meta 2022 loss, 2021 revenue: here
U.S. VR sales drop to $664 million in 2023: here
Global VR headset shipments declined 20.9% to 8.8 million units in 2022, with Meta holding nearly 80% share, per IDC’s March 8, 2023, report: here
Meta rebrand token surge: here Decentraland $110 Million sales, MANA jump: here
The Sandbox valuation: here
Facebook closes Facebook Spaces for Meta Horizon: here
Remote work savings: here
Accenture’s VR use: here
PwC’s Sandbox buy, efficiency gain: here
China’s Three-Year Action Plan: here
Malaysia’s Meta Universe launch: here
Baidu’s XiRang launch: here Losses in VR/AR Ecosystem by 40%: here