Decades have passed since the establishment of the first virtual worlds, such as  World of Warcraft or Second Life, and developers' aspirations to create immersive universes where users  can roam freely have not reduced their pace. Meta’s (formerly known as Facebook) new 'Metaverse' depicts  the latest development in that segment, and through the inclusion of virtual reality content in real life, so called augmented reality, both the digital and non-digital world coalesce more and more. Solactive now  released its Solactive Global Metaverse Index, including publicly listed companies that potentially stand  to benefit from the adoption and usage of technologies expected to grow and support the functioning of  the metaverse. Canadian ETF pioneer Horizons ETF will issue an ETF tracking the index. 

In 2007, Second Life founder Philip Rosedale argued that a 3D world wide web would become status quo with  all internet users owning a digital avatar eventually. With a growing demand in both virtual and augmented  reality services, recent studies project the metaverse opportunity to reach at least $800 USD billion of market  capitalization by 2024.1 Horizons ETFs’ new Horizons Global Metaverse Index ETF (“MTAV”) enables investors  to capture themassive performance potential of companies operating in the fields of AR/VR, Creator Economy,  Digital Infrastructure, Digital Marketplaces, Gaming, and Digital Payment. 

The Solactive Global Metaverse Index includes companies headquartered in one of the countries, which are  part of the Developed Markets and Emerging Markets2. To receive a pure selection of constituents, companies  must not be classified under any of the following industries: casinos/gaming, electronics/appliance stores,  food retail, and motor vehicles. The selection procedure of the Solactive Global Metaverse Index is powered  by Solactive’s proprietary big data and natural language processing (NLP) algorithm ARTIS®. ARTIS® is  utilizing advanced algorithms to parse high volumes of public documents to evaluate companies’ exposure to  specific themes or topics. Each company identified by ARTIS® receives a score that reflects its exposure to the  index strategy. This set of companies are then reviewed to ensure relevance to the theme of the index based

on business operations. Companies that do not exhibit relevant business exposure to the theme are removed  from the selection process at this stage. The final index contains 50 companies. 

“The metaverse is the next frontier of the human experience and technological innovation. We believe that the  metaverse will become an extremely important realm for social and economic interaction over the next  decade,” said Steve Hawkins, President and CEO of Horizons ETFs. “Even today, these technologies are already  reframing the way that we engage with one another, from virtual reality to non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”). MTAV  is the first index-based ETF in Canada to offer direct exposure to the global companies that are investing  heavily in building and expanding the digital worlds that encompass the metaverse.” 

Timo Pfeiffer, Chief Markets Officer at Solactive, comments: “I remember my first exposure to digital worlds  was two grey blocks passing a giant pixel to each other, which was, at the time, a deeply absorbing experience.  Now, with technology progressing and computation power rising, unimaginable worlds can be created and  experienced immersively in virtual spaces; or our non-digital world can be enhanced through augmented  reality, which offers widespread application in our daily lives. With Horizons ETFs, we share a spirit for  innovation to always deliver our clients the latest trends in investing. We’re happy to be part of such a cutting edge product.” 

Horizons Global Metaverse Index ETF (“MTAV”) started trading on November 29th, 2021, under the ticker  symbol MTAV:TSX on Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”).