STEPN: what you need to know about the "move-to-earn" crypto trend

STEPN (GMT) is a so-called "move-to-earn" crypto token that was launched back in the summer of 2021. However, the price of STEPN has recently picked up the pace and sprinted ahead, leaving competing cryptos in the dust. GMT price has surged over 3500% over the last month, going from just over $0.10 to $3.89, a jump of around 70% in the last week.

How STEPN works

According to the creators, STEPN is a Web3 lifestyle app with a move-to-earn business model that combines elements of metaverse technology, gamification and personal fitness. The project's crypto token with the ticker GMT was created on the Solana (SOL) blockchain. You may have already heard of 'play-to-earn' cryptocurrencies such as Axie (AXS), which reward users for taking action inside a video game. Move-to-earn cryptos have a similar concept, but rather than awarding cryptocurrency for in-game activity; they reward users for physical activity in the real world. STEPN awards tokens to users for walking, jogging or running, offering a monetary incentive for personal fitness.

Move-to-earn is becoming a big trend in the crypto space, with strong selling points such as encouraging personal health and fitness, environmentalism (as users are incentivised to not use cars) and game elements that tie into the NFT and metaverse markets.

Here's how it works. STEPN offers virtual sneakers in the form of NFTs on its in-app marketplace. Purchasers of these sneaker NFTs get access to play the STEPN augmented reality game, which tracks physical activity and movement and rewards them with the in-game Green Satoshi Token (GST). The more they exercise, the more they earn. Users can then trade the GST reward for Solana (SOL) or USD Coin (USDC). According to STEPN, the company will use profits to "buy back and burn GMT on-chain from the secondary market", thus increasing the scarcity of the GMT token.

The move-to-earn crypto craze

Move-to-earn is generating a lot of buzz in the crypto space, although the concept is still relatively new, and it's too soon to tell if the concept of move-to-earn will stick around in the long term. Technology has become a bigger part of health and wellness culture in recent years as joggers and athletes integrate wearable fitness trackers or mobile apps into their fitness routines. Augmented reality apps such as Pokemon Go have also shown the effectiveness of gamified incentives for movement, although the famous game has yet to find a worthy successor to continue the trend. Cryptocurrency has the potential to bring a new selling point to this phenomenon.

STEPN isn't the only move-to-earn token on the market. Competitors include Genets (GENE) and dotmoovs (MOOV). The price of many move-to-earn tokens has surged lately, thanks to media and investor attention to STEPN after the company's recently released earnings report, in which it declared a  profit of $26.81 million from its NFT marketplace trading and royalty fees in Q1 2022. 

For anyone interested in investing in move-to-earn cryptocurrencies, STEPN is the frontrunner in this race. CoinMarketCap data shows that the total market capitalisation of STEPN token has crossed $2.3 billion and currently ranks as the 45th largest crypto by market cap.

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