What is STEPN?

Published in

The Poloniex blog

4 min readApr 26, 2022

STEPN. The latest craze in crypto and GameFi. The web3 mobile game with a mission to get users to live a healthy lifestyle, this project has seen immense growth and has been a constant topic of conversation in crypto communities as of late. So what is it? How can you earn with it? Let’s lace up and get going as we dive into STEPN.

By the way, this is an article about a GameFi project, so if you want to learn more about what GameFi is, head on over to our explainer article!

TL;DR

Launched in December 2021 by Find Satoshi Lab, STEPN is one of the hottest Web3 projects out right now. Dubbed a “Move2Earn” app and integrating elements of GameFi and SocialFi, STEPN aims to get users out and about through exercise-based economic incentives.

Key points for the article- 1. What is STEPN? 2. Why is it so popular? 3. STEPN’s tokens 4. How do you earn with STEPN?

Making a splash

Since its launch late last year, STEPN has garnered quite the following, growing to nearly 100,000 daily active users by the end of Q1 2022. Not only that, but according to an announcement on CoinMarketCap, STEPN garnered a profit of over $26 million in SOL from its NFT marketplace and royalty fees.

Based on the Solana blockchain, the project has not only gained a strong global audience in a short amount of time, but has been backed by and has partnered with quite notable names in both crypto and athletic wear.

The reason for this success? It could be because STEPN is one of the first (successful) GameFi games focusing on health and wellness. So while the NFT and GameFi space has been dominated by more traditional games, STEPN has generated success from a first-mover advantage.

Investors

Adding to its notoriety, STEPN has received backing from the likes of Sequoia Capital, Sfermion, and Binance Labs.

Partnerships

In one of its most recent developments, STEPN teamed up with popular sneaker brand Asics to issue co-branded NFT sneakers on Binance’s NFT marketplace, causing a strong uptick in the price of its GMT token.

How do you get started with STEPN?

Right now, STEPN is in its rather early stages. So although it has seen rapid user growth, actually activating a STEPN account is rather competitive, as one must get one of 2,000 activation codes issued per day on the project’s Discord and Telegram (1,000 in each channel).

Once you’re through that, you will be able to buy an NFT sneaker on the in-app marketplace. You must own one and equip it in order to earn with STEPN.

With your sneaker equipped, all you have to do is activate the app’s GPS function and start earning.

Move2Earn

You’ve heard of Play-to-Earn. Well what about Move2Earn? The term, if you haven’t already guessed, refers to economic incentives based on exercise.

In STEPN’s case, users must own or rent an NFT sneaker, available on STEPN’s marketplace, in order to earn tokens. What likens the app with other NFT-based GameFi projects is its gamification elements. Like other games, sneakers are assigned a quality- common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary. There are even mystery boxes that players can collect.

STEPN’s token economy

STEPN’s in-game economy is powered by NFT shoes and its native tokens, GMT and GST. There are currently 6 billion GMT tokens minted, but STEPN has instituted a buyback and burn mechanism in order to foster user growth. GMT can be earned through the game’s Move2Earn mechanic, but only for users with level 30 shoes. GST, STEPN’s utility token, can be earned by users with any level of NFT shoes and has an unlimited supply.

The NFT shoes can be purchased in-app with SOL from a user’s connected wallet.

For STEPN’s part, they make money from fees collected from in-app NFT shoe trading, shoe minting, and shoe rental, according to their litepaper.

How does one make money with STEPN?

In short, by moving! With GPS enabled within the app and an NFT shoe equipped, a user need only get out and start exercising in order to earn GST and GMT (if they have level 30 sneakers).