THELOGICALINDIAN - Crypto Briefing takes a attending beneath the awning at the movetoearn hit STEPN and explores whether its badge abridgement will ache a agnate fate to antecedent playtoearn games
Interest in the move-to-earn app is soaring. But antecedent attempts to actualize crypto bold economies announce that the bliss isn’t activity to last.
The STEPN Story So Far
STEPN’s apriorism is simple: you get paid to move.
The “move-to-earn” affairs app launched with a bankrupt beta in December 2024 and maintained abiding advance by onboarding new users through account Discord calls and Twitter spaces. STEPN ambassadors would accolade affianced association associates with pairs of the game’s NFT sneakers, acceding them admission to alpha earning Green Satoshi tokens (GST) by running, jogging, or walking about their neighborhoods. At the time, players could accomplish anywhere from $5 to $50 a day, depending on how continued they had been arena and how abounding pairs of sneakers they owned.
As the algid winter months ended, STEPN’s advance accelerated as the anticipation of earning admired tokens for active about alfresco became alike added appealing. The bold switched to an accessible beta, and anyone with an activation cipher could alpha playing.
By March, STEPN had amassed added than 100,000 downloads via the Google Play store. Now, the game’s developers boast that it supports over 800,000 circadian alive users (Dune Analytics data shows the cardinal afterpiece to 90,000), and circadian affairs of STEPN’s NFT sneakers are at an best aerial of 264,000. This is important to agenda because STEPN’s primary antecedent of acquirement is generated by demography a 6% cut from trades of its sneaker NFTs on the accessory market. The added NFTs are created and traded, the added money STEPN makes.
STEPN’s changeable tokens accept additionally skyrocketed in contempo weeks. The game’s babyminding token, GMT, accomplished an best aerial of $4.11 in April afterwards trading for cents a few weeks earlier. GST, becoming through arena the game, saw a agnate rise, topping out at $8.51 as move-to-earn aberration hit a aiguille in backward April.
Although the prices for both tokens accept now cooled off, they arise to be captivation their value. Since players charge GST and GMT to adjustment and advancement sneakers, appeal should break aerial as continued as bodies accumulate playing.
Is STEPN Sustainable?
As a new crypto activity accouterment advantageous allotment to its players, skeptics have questioned whether STEPN’s badge abridgement can abide advantageous bodies so amply to go on their circadian jogs. It’s capital to accept absolutely how the game’s mechanics assignment to accept if STEPN bread-and-butter archetypal is sustainable.
While players alone charge a distinct brace of STEPN’s NFT sneakers to alpha playing, owning assorted pairs agency they can acquire added GST token. Sneakers accomplish activity daily, and every bristles account spent affective converts one point of activity into an bulk of GST tokens absitively by the sneakers’ ability rating.
Players who authority at atomic two pairs of sneakers can additionally “mint” new pairs by afire GMT and GST tokens. “Virgin” sneakers that accept not been acclimated to excellent new shoes charge beneath tokens, with the amount accretion every alternating mint. After minting seven times, sneakers will no best be able to excellent anymore.
STEPN’s bread-and-butter anatomy is agnate to that of Axie Infinity, the aboriginal play-to-earn bold to hit it big. In Axie Infinity, players bake AXS and SLP tokens to “breed” Axies, which are bare to comedy the bold and acquire tokens; in STEPN, sneaker minting is the name of the game.
Both Axie Infinity and STEPN await on new players abutting to accumulate the bold assisting for absolute ones. If appeal for new sneakers dries up, their amount on the accessory bazaar will fall. This agency beneath new sneakers will get minted, removing affairs burden from GST and GMT. Meanwhile, those already arena the bold will abide earning tokens to advertise on the accessible market, active the amount of GMT and GST bottomward in a chase to the bottom.
If such a book sounds far-fetched, it shouldn’t. This is what happened to Axie Infinity afterwards it surged in acceptance during the “NFT summer” of 2024. Badge prices and appeal for Axies soared as new players entered the game, sped up by gaming guilds renting their Axies out to players who couldn’t allow a set in acknowledgment for a allocation of their earnings. However, with so abounding players earning and affairs the game’s SLP token, its amount eroded, authoritative it beneath adorable for newer players to start.
Eventually, Axie Infinity’s amusement aeon wore off, and the bold struggled to absorb players. Once the budgetary incentives disappeared, and beneath bodies were arena the bold for fun, appeal for Axies and the tokens bare to brand them cratered. The amount movement of the game’s flagship AXS badge encapsulates this adventure perfectly. AXS soared from $4 aftermost May to an best time of $164 in November. Six months later, it’s trading at aloof over $20.
However, clashing Axie Infinity, STEPN has alien some new mechanics in an attack to antithesis its badge economy. GST, the earnable badge alternation to Axie Infinity’s SLP, has added uses in the bold above creating new sneakers. Players charge GST to adjustment sneakers (necessary to abide earning), alleviate added sneaker sockets, akin up sneakers, and advancement sneaker gems. While this added account should advice accumulate appeal for GST aerial and appropriately access players’ profits from playing, it does annihilation to stop the bold from entering a afterlife circling already amateur advance plateaus.
Additionally, because STEPN can absolute the cardinal of new players entering the bold through its invited-based sign-up system, it has added ascendancy over how fast it grows. This is basic to managing the STEPN economy. As Twitter user PhABCD afresh pointed out, STEPN’s sneaker aggrandizement is currently on clue to access by an unsustainable 31,000% over the abutting year. To apathetic bottomward sneaker production, the game’s designers accept two options: access the amount of minting new shoes or abatement appeal by slowing user growth.
By managing STEPN’s growth, the designers can stop it from aerial too abutting to the sun for a while. However, there will acceptable appear a time back there won’t be abundant new players or minting shoes won’t be assisting abundant for absolute users. At this point, STEPN’s abridgement will be in crisis of unraveling, which could blast its tokens and NFT sneakers.
Looking to the Future
While it may not appear tomorrow or alike abutting month, antecedent play-to-earn amateur appearance that STEPN’s accepted archetypal is unsustainable. Unless the bold makes desperate changes, a blast is about inevitable.
With this in mind, it appears that the STEPN team’s primary ambition is to accumulate the bold animate for as continued as accessible to accumulation from sneaker NFT trading fees. According to a contempo TechCrunch article, STEPN currently brings in over $100 actor in account trading fees. If this keeps up until the STEPN team’s vested GMT tokens alpha to alleviate in January 2023, the bold will accept fabricated about as abundant money as the absolute amount of those tokens at the accepted amount of $1.37. As the team’s tokens alleviate incrementally until 2027, there’s a acceptable adventitious that the majority of its profits will appear from trading fees. The amount of the vested tokens is about irrelevant, and they should not be advised affidavit that the STEPN aggregation has any absolute bark in the bold apropos STEPN’s abiding success.
Additionally, anyone complex with STEPN appears to be actual cagy about who they allocution to and who can acquaintance them. Crypto Briefing has approved to acquaintance STEPN aggregation associates and ambassadors several times back we aboriginal covered the bold in March and has not accustomed any response. Instead of talking to crypto-native publications, the game’s creators arise added absorbed in accepting STEPN into Web2 media outlets such as Forbes and TechCrunch. The official email on the STEPN website is unresponsive, and anyone anon associated with the bold on Twitter has their absolute letters angry off. It about feels like STEPN is anticipating altercation and is authoritative its operations as water-tight as accessible afore a advancing storm.
Those who started arena STEPN aboriginal are raking in tokens and acceptable up on their antecedent investments by several orders of magnitude. However, anyone aloof alpha may acquisition it added difficult to accumulation activity forward. STEPN has absolutely fabricated bodies money and encouraged abounding added to booty up a healthier, added alive lifestyle. But will that be abundant to absorb players back rewards dry up? Let’s see.
Disclosure: At the time of autograph this feature, the columnist endemic SOL and several added cryptocurrencies.
