How to rent LAND in Decentraland without MANA?

This post was originally published in [2021] and has been fully updated for 2026 with new data and tools.

Is the price of MANA keeping you out of the metaverse?

You might not need it at all. Learning how to rent LAND in Decentraland without MANA is the secret to launching a virtual gallery or event space on a budget.

With the 2026 “Fiat-Lease” protocols, you can pay your rent in local currency while the smart contract handles the back-end conversion automatically.

Major exchanges like Bitget and OKX now offer the ability to use a credit card to pay for a rental. The exchange handles the conversion to MANA for you as long as you pay with real cash.

Keep reading, and I’ll share what Decentraland is, what you can do in the virtual world, what competition the project has, and my thoughts.

Renting Virtual Real Estate: How to Become a Tenant in Decentraland Without Buying an NFT

Major exchanges like Bitget and OKX now offer the ability to use a credit card to pay for a rental.

The exchange handles the conversion to MANA for you as long you pay with real cash.

You also don’t need to own the land to build on it. Once you pay the rent using cypto or dollars, you can build on it.

You don’t even need a crypto exchange because there are companies like metavers Properties that are like property managers that can take your cash for long term leases, so you don’t even need a crypto exchange.

You can pay them to deal with it, if you have the money.

Decentraland Evolution: Comparing the 2021 Hype Era to the 2026 Infrastructure Era

Back in 2021, during COVID, when I was working and looking at this project, it was just on the browser.

It was buggy, crashing a lot, and nerdy.

In 2026, it has a mobile app and a desktop client. Plus, now, it’s an easy drag-and-drop editor, a 400% performance boost from 2021.

In 2021, it was pure speculation, land flipping. In 2026, brands like Nice and Gucci use it for 3D stores.

In 2021, it had crappy visuals and basic, now in 2026, it was weather affects, pets, and the DAO manages a 100 million dollar treasury.

DAO means (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), it’s like a group of people who decide shit, most crypto projects have it.

What is Decentraland (MANA)? Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Decentralized Metaverse

Decentraland is a community-owned virtual world, and it runs on the Ethereum blockchain.

Each part of the land is an NFT on the blockchain. There are 90,000 parcels of land, and each piece can be customized.

When you customize it, you are using a drag-and-drop program similar to the video game SimCity.

Some land is used for roads or plazas, and it can’t be sold. There are also large plots of land that are owned by people or organizations.

The closer the land is to a road or popular plaza, the more expensive it will be (just like in the real world).

Players can also buy names and clothes for their avatars in the game.

Everything is purchased using the MANA token. The MANA token is a governance token, and this means you can vote on things.

Beyond the Metaverse Hype: How to Explore Genesis City Districts and Themed Museums

Believe it or not, video games are a bigger business than movies and music combined, and it’s ONLY going to grow.

Instead of going to the real Las Vegas, you can actually go to the virtual one in Decentraland.

How about art galleries? Yep, there are these in Decentraland.

Heck, this is why some of these NFT projects are selling for so much.

I’m sure you have heard about Beeple, who sold the NFT Everydays for 69 million dollars, in case you haven’t HERE is a blog post I created about him, which is VERY interesting.

You’re probably wondering why in the HELL would someone pay 69 million dollars for digital art?

One reason is that it increases the value of other digital art near it. It’s like how the Mona Lisa draws people to the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

I have been to the Lourvre and one of the reasons the art became famous is that someone stole it. Then it was returned, and people wondered what the fuss was about.

Now the art is famous for just being famous.

There are even racing games in the virtual world.

This is sounding more and more like the movie Ready Player One, right?

I listened to the audiobook when I was hiking on the “Pacific Coast Trail” many years ago. The audiobook was MUCH better than the movie.

I walked across the state of Oregon, and it was painful. 1 time I ran out of water on this mountain and had to beg people I saw for some.

The problem with long-distance hiking is that no matter what you do, your feet get messed up. The good news is you can eat all the junk food you want and never gain weight.

There was even a soccer tournament on Decentraland, and the winner received a trophy NFT that was backed by real-world gold.

If you’re struggling to wrap your mind around all this stuff Remember…

Heck, there are even virtual concerts that happen. Seriously, you’ve got to check out the upcoming events by clicking the link HERE. Funny, there is even Kareoke and scavenger hunts.

What a bunch of nerds.

You might be wondering how to buy land in this virtual world.

You can go to the market by clicking on this link HERE, and all the light blue areas are for sale.

You pay for the land in MANA tokens.

Decentraland (MANA) Pros and Cons: How the 2026 SDK 7 Update Changed the Investment Thesis

In the long term, I’m bullish on the MANA token.

One of the things you can do with the MANA token is buy land. You can also buy goods and services in the virtual world, customize your virtual body, and vote on ideas.

There is a fixed supply of 2.6 billion tokens when the token was first created, and there are 1.7 billion in circulation.

During the initial land auctions, many MANA tokens were burned during the auctions.

Also, 2.5% of all transactions on the Decentraland marketplace were burned; now there is a fixed supply of 2.2 billion tokens. The community decided to stop burning tokens and put them into a community fund.

The team can’t mess with the supply because they destroyed the keys to the smart contract.

If that wasn’t enough, the amount of tokens is distributed fairly evenly. Most projects have a few whales that hold a lot, and there is a risk they will dump all their tokens.

With MANA, the largest whale is Binance (the exchange).

Another advantage is the growing popularity of video games. The whole COVID-19 pandemic, pushing people to stay home and play video games, only helps Decentraland.

The third advantage this project has is its team.

The team does seem qualified and has the experience.

Let’s talk about some of the negatives of this crypto project. The largest negative is that there is lots of competition for virtual worlds.

One of the largest players that will compete has a big face and loves books. Can you guess who this player is?

Facebook.

Yes, Facebook wants to create a metaverse, and it has the network and money. You can read more about Facebook’s virtual world by clicking on the link HERE. Oh, Facebook recently changed its name to “Meta.”

Plus, there are other players such as Neoland, Sandbox, High Fidelity, and MUCH more. Let’s not forget Amazon’s new MMMO can jump into the space.

Yes, Jeff Bezos wants to jump into space (literally)! Doesn’t Amazon.com want to control everything?

The second negative with Decentraland is that it’s built on Ethereum. Most people have a love/hate relationship with this crypto.

The gas prices can be VERY high and expensive to move MANA. This just makes it harder to do business. Ethereum is also Turing-complete, and this means more things can go wrong.

You know, there are 2 Ethereums?

Yeah, oops! Oh, and there was another recent hacking event; you can read about it from the link HERE.

Oh, in case you haven’t heard, Ethereum is changing “everything” around and including staking, sharding, and more.

The bad news is that due to it being MORE new now, it’s riskier and there is more of a chance of something going wrong.

The third negative is that it’s NOT easy to get started. Let’s be honest, people are insanely LAZY.

Figuring out how to get MANA, funding your wallet, and buying high gas prices make it challenging for new people to join.

Conclusion: How to rent LAND in Decentraland without MANA?

In the long term, I’m bullish on Decentraland, but it’s VERY risky. So many things can go wrong! Also, Decentraland is going to have some competition.

Every time I think of NFTs and buying virtual land, I think of the story of the moon.

Dennis Hope thought he found a loophole that nobody owned the moon.

He claimed ownership of the moon as well as many other planets and started selling the land. He even sold land to former President Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and 675 other celebrities.

Very funny story, and you can read more about it by clicking on the link HERE.

One more funny story is about people selling imaginary friends and ghosts on eBay (It’s true)!

Some of these imaginary friends sell for lots of money. Here is a list of some I have found. The world is crazy, so if imaginary friends and land on planets can sell, virtual land does have a chance.

However, nobody knows, and crypto is risky, and it’s going to be a pumpy ride.

It’s not a bad idea to diversify!

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I hope this blog post on the pros and cons of investing in Decentraland was helpful. Bye for now.