By 2026, those metaverse projects that once gained popularity by selling virtual land have long since become a bit low-key. The virtual world now boasts a mature economic chain—brands opening flagship stores, luxury goods native to digital assets selling for astronomical prices, and player-created IPs capable of generating real revenue. But such a complex economic ecosystem requires what kind of financial infrastructure to support it? Not just simple transparent ledgers, but systems that can facilitate free flow of assets while safeguarding business secrets and personal privacy. This is the core issue—and also the opportunity.

Imagine a luxury brand launching a limited edition digital handbag in the metaverse. They certainly wouldn’t want their inventory data and buyer lists visible to everyone online—these are completely private in real-world business activities, so why should they be exposed on the blockchain? Similarly, a player guild purchasing large quantities of virtual resources wouldn’t want the transaction amount and participant details to be publicly accessible. The traditional public blockchain’s transparent ledger design becomes a bottleneck here.

Some projects are working to fill this gap. Through programmable privacy technology, they can give the metaverse’s economic activities a "financial invisibility cloak." How does this work exactly?

For example, privacy payments—when users buy things in the virtual world, only the existence of the transaction is recorded on-chain, but details like who the parties are, what was purchased, and how much was spent are encrypted. This is a win-win for both brands and consumers.

Another example is large transactions. Transfers of virtual real estate or high-value IP deals can be kept hidden from the public, while project teams and regulators can still see the details. This protects privacy without losing traceability.

There’s also an interesting direction—compliant DeFi. Financial activities like lending and leasing within the metaverse can automatically run KYC/AML checks via smart contracts. Virtual world financial activities can have real-world risk control measures.

From this perspective, certain public chains focusing on privacy technology play a completely different role in the metaverse. They are not just project promoters or traffic competitors, but the formulators of underlying rules. They act like financial regulators in the virtual world—protecting transaction freedom while maintaining order and privacy. While other chains are still competing for metaverse users, these projects may quietly become the foundational infrastructure relied upon by several top virtual worlds—a virtual Swiss bank combined with a secret agency. They control not traffic, but the lifeblood of value flow. That is the true long-term value.