In the current Meme craze, GMT's 'gamified destruction gameplay' brings new arbitrage opportunities.
On November 21, the voting platform BurnGMT, created by the GMT DAO ecological fund, officially launched. From November 21, 2024, to January 20, 2025, users can lock GMT tokens on the Polygon chain to vote on whether to destroy the 600 million GMT tokens repurchased by the team. According to Yawn, co-founder of the GMT team, revealed during the official Townhall event on November 19, this 600 million GMT mainly comes from early investors, unlocked shares from advisors, and part of the team's allocation. Users participating in the vote can also receive a total of 100 million GMT as additional rewards as a return for participating in the community voting activity.
In the market environment where BTC keeps setting new highs, as a top project in the GameFi track, coupled with the past actions of the STEPN and GMT teams, such as injecting liquidity into the GMT token pool on a large scale and conducting three rounds of airdrops totaling 200 million GMT tokens to the community, after this, GMT will be close to a fully circulating state, except for the annual unlocking of about 2.5% of Move2Earn rewards and foundation shares. This perhaps reflects the team's grand goal in the new bull market - to seek greater development space through better token market performance while giving back to the community and exploring new growth points for the project.
This article will analyze and interpret the actions related to BurnGMT and its backing team.
(BurnGMT.com launched: GameFi leader presents a new 'strategy')
As the leading GameFi project in the 2021 - 2023 cycle, STEPN is well-known, and the launch of the BurnGMT website can be considered another 'big move' following STEPN GO and the GGT token.
According to news from the official Townhall AMA event on November 19, the only purpose of the BurnGMT website is to allow community members to vote on 'whether to destroy the GMT tokens that the official team has repurchased.' The way to participate is to lock GMT to gain voting shares. At the same time, participating community members can receive limited edition NFTs and share a total of 100 million GMT staking rewards according to their voting power.
It should be noted that the distribution of this reward is not only related to the user's GMT locked amount but also critically tied to the duration of the lock-up: the larger the amount of GMT locked and the longer the time, the more corresponding token rewards there will be. Furthermore, the daily total locked amount of GMT being lower means that individual users will receive more GMT token rewards. The final rewards will be uniformly airdropped after the 60-day lock-up period ends. Importantly, this lock-up is only for distributing voting shares; the GMT tokens destroyed all come from the 600 million GMT tokens previously repurchased by the official team. Coupled with the voting lock-up mechanism, it seems that the official is hinting at wanting to increase the price. After all, based on the data that STEPN users consumed 800 million GMT in the past two years, GMT is expected to become 'the first fully circulating Binance Launchpad token,' which will bring new market attention and potential buying power to GMT.
Moreover, after this GMT destruction voting event ends, which is on January 20, 2025, GMT DAO will continue to operate, initiating more community governance votes to facilitate community members to submit proposals and participate in project development governance. According to the official team, future voting activities may take place on a dedicated website and might be conducted quarterly. At that time, community members' voting shares corresponding to the GMT locked would be soft-locked and could be unlocked at any time.
Recently, STEPN will launch a challenging and potentially viral community event - 'Guinness World Record challenge for the most people running in 1 hour and 24 hours.' According to community AMA information, participants need to open the STEPN or Stepn Go APP between 5 PM to 6 PM on November 23 or from 8 AM on November 23 to 8 AM on November 24 to record a running or walking activity of 1 mile or longer (Note: No need for Sneaker props or energy consumption), with the theme being 'Run together, make history.' If the final number of participants is sufficient, it may reignite the enthusiasm for participation in the P2E GameFi track, allowing STEPN to attract a new wave of traffic and market attention.
The participation rewards for this Guinness challenge include exclusive commemorative badges, a limited edition StepN OG sneaker lottery (with the Guinness World Record logo, lottery on the NFT market MOOAR platform, open from November 14 to 22), 'record package' rewards, and tripling GST income and doubling GGT income, etc. Detailed information can be found in the official announcement.
It can be seen that, in the new market environment, the STEPN and GMT teams are not resting on their laurels but are attempting to stimulate community engagement and boost token holders' confidence through 'gamified voting destruction' gameplay, seeking a win-win for multiple parties, which involves considerable planning behind it.
(BTC continues to set new highs, GMT is expected to become 'sports Meme coin')
In early November, after Trump won the new presidential election in the United States, the market ended months of 'monkey market fluctuations' and entered a rapid rising phase, with BTC prices breaking through from around $73,000 and repeatedly setting new highs. The 'Trump effect' injected new vitality into the cryptocurrency industry. Similarly, as the industry enters a new stage of development, Meme coins, which have lower entry barriers, high risk-reward ratios, and higher speculative value, became the main line of the industry. This provides emerging projects with broader market space; on the other hand, it also sets new requirements for past mature projects and their teams - they must continuously iterate and evolve to establish themselves in the rapidly changing crypto market.
Considering various factors, the BurnGMT destruction activity launched by the STEPN and GMT teams is indeed well thought out and closely follows the situation.
From the perspective of the event mechanism design, the end date of the GMT destruction event is the same day Trump officially takes office as president (January 20, 2025), which adds a certain degree of 'Trump concept token' attributes to the GMT token.
From the website's UI design perspective, the preheating period's website UI incorporates Trump's iconic red hat symbol and his famous campaign slogan 'Make America Great Again,' along with the updated version 'Make GMT Great Again,' which is quite entertaining and full of Meme attributes.
From the perspective of reward distribution rhythm, up to 100 million GMT voting rewards will be distributed evenly over 60 days, which means that when initial participation is low, users will receive relatively more rewards, encouraging community users to participate early; and when the voting shares meet the locking thresholds of 100 million, 500 million, and 900 million, it will trigger the team to destroy all future allocations for advisors, teams, and investors over the next 10 months (according to the official statement, the specific operation process is to unlock GMT tokens and send them to a black hole address for destruction, with corresponding on-chain records), thereby alleviating the release pressure of GMT tokens. In short, users can actively vote to earn rewards while also passively enjoying the token price increase after the release pressure disappears, achieving a 'double benefit.'
Overall, GMT may become a 'dual Meme coin in the GameFi & sports product track' in the future.
(Analyzing the strategy of the STEPN and GMT teams: injecting real money to boost GMT's market performance)
To delve into the true intentions behind the STEPN and GMT team's actions, we can look at the following three aspects:
First, from the uniqueness of industry gameplay, this can be regarded as a clear 'open strategy' - simply put, the official behind GMT wants to raise the price of GMT tokens with real money. In the past, there were various power games in the market, such as the struggles between on-market and off-market participants, including token locking, spot, and futures holders; players and project parties, where one side seeks higher returns but cannot independently decide the amount of token supply destruction, while the other side directly has lower returns but stronger decision-making power over token supply destruction; short-term DeFi mining returns versus trusting the project and its team, adhering to long-termism; the former tends to 'run away once profits are made,' while the latter is 'fishing with a long line for big fish.' The gameplay of directly repurchasing tokens and handing decision-making power to community users cleverly resolves the 'prisoner's dilemma' in various games - the project party puts real money into reducing token supply and boosting token prices, while the community only needs to choose 'Yes/No.'
Secondly, from the perspective of the project's industry position, as the recognized 'GameFi king' at the end of the 2022 bull market, STEPN and GMT's market performance is evident, and the team's operational capabilities have been tested by the market. The scene of 'a pair of high-level item shoes being hard to come by' is still exciting. Now, against the backdrop of this unprecedented bull market, the STEPN and GMT teams are publicly acting, clearly not satisfied with the limited chips in the hands of market retail investors, but wanting to 'expand the market' further, enhancing the story's imaginative space and 'market dream rate.' After all, STEPN has nearly 8 million real registered players, and the participants of nearly 30 global offline gatherings every month since 2022 are the 'loyal fans' of GMT. Such a solid user base is rare in today's Meme coin projects, even in the previous cycles. This is a rare opportunity to get on board, and the 600 million GMT tokens to be destroyed and 100 million GMT rewards are the best evidence.
Finally, from the past return performance of the project, the team behind STEPN and GMT can be considered a 'generous benefactor' - previously, the STEPN official repeatedly rewarded community users, not only giving away running shoes for free at the project's inception but also allowing early users to earn GMT token rewards simply by consuming energy; just this item alone has distributed tens of millions of GMT tokens. The annual GMT token airdrop is also a feast for wealth - it is reported that this year, the STEPN official has airdropped GMT worth nearly $30 million cumulatively, providing real economic returns to community users regardless of bull or bear markets, and many people have even fallen in love with running and persisted to this day (I have many friends like this). In addition, due to the previous strong return performance, the team behind STEPN and GMT has garnered a large number of loyal community users who adhere to the spirit of 'blockchain co-construction, co-governance, and sharing,' which has laid a solid foundation for the project's continuous development.
(Staking rewards NFT interface)
From a market perspective, compared to teams that 'do nothing after issuing tokens or even disappear,' the STEPN and GMT teams' launch of the BurnGMT website to destroy part of the GMT token supply can be seen as a 'thankless task,' but it reflects their strong determination, decisive operations, and confidence in the long-term development of the project.
(BurnGMT action guide: How can GMT holders maximize their returns?)
Adhering to the principle of 'decentralized decision-making,' whether this GMT destruction voting activity can ultimately reduce the total supply of GMT while enhancing the price of GMT depends on the participation of community users. If you want to elevate GMT's market price and simultaneously obtain rewards from this voting activity, users can operate according to the following steps:
Open the website https://burngmt.com/, connect your wallet;
Locked assets held by $GMT to gain voting shares;
Vote to support the official destruction of the repurchased GMT tokens.
Lock GMT to vote. The more you lock, the more GMT will be burned.
The locked amount of GMT reaches 100 million: destroy the GMT shares belonging to the advisor.
The locked amount of GMT increases by 500 million (cumulative locked amount reaches 600 million): destroy the GMT shares belonging to the team.
GMT locked amount increases by 300 million GMT (cumulative locked amount reaches 900 million): all GMT tokens repurchased and destroyed, totaling 600 million.
After voting, users will receive a limited edition cap NFT (Make GMT Great Again, MGGA), similar to the red cap on the official website interface. On one hand, this NFT serves as a memento of participating in the vote; on the other hand, it records the amount of GMT locked and the corresponding reward quantity. To emphasize again: the earlier you participate in the lock-up, the more of the 100 million GMT rewards prepared by the official will be distributed, and the higher the yield. At the same time, this activity also provides profit opportunities for spot and futures players; the former can enjoy rising profits, while the latter can earn profits through market games.
Moreover, as the supply of GMT tokens decreases further and prices rise, the ecological landscape behind GMT tokens will further expand: in terms of products, STEPN, STEPN GO, and other GameFi products are running steadily; the multi-chain NFT market MOOAR facilitates secondary market transactions; various products in fields such as cross-chain DEX DOOAR, mini-games MORCHI, strategy games GAS HERO, ecological wallet FSL ID provide users with rich choices. Additionally, the official has revealed that three major new products will be launched in 2025, which are worth looking forward to. Furthermore, the slogan 'BurnGMT' itself has strong Meme attributes, combined with the growing attention to the sports and health field in the crypto industry, GMT can further expand towards 'health Meme,' 'sports Meme,' and even the recently popular 'Desci track Meme coin' directions.
In terms of expanding external influence, the team behind GMT has been working hard: products like STEPN have strong user appeal in Japan, with relevant participating teams achieving 'fourth place' in the Japan National Strength Competitive Marathon; sponsoring the Taipei Marathon and the Lindesay brothers' crossing of the Great Wall of China, as well as veteran Nels crossing the continental United States in 46 days, have sparked widespread discussions and maintained high topic heat. Collaborating with top international brands, celebrities, and IPs like Asic, Adidas, Casio, Ghost in the Shell, Steve Aoki, and Snoopy Dog has also enhanced the visibility of STEPN and GMT. Many teams do things, but few have consistently achieved results; the team behind STEPN and GMT is one of them.
Therefore, compared to its peak market value of $2.3 billion, GMT, currently at only $490 million, is clearly undervalued by the market and presents certain asymmetrical opportunities.
(Conclusion: Change is eternal, and so are crypto projects)
As the BTC price recently broke through $93,000 again, the crypto bull market continues. For various participants in this market with volatile risks, it is not only necessary to seize short-term risk arbitrage opportunities but also to deeply understand the value of long-termism; only in this way can one avoid being eliminated by the market and avoid 'a misstep leading to total loss.'
In this regard, we can see that the STEPN team and its backing are ambitious with the launch of the BurnGMT destruction plan, aiming not only for short-term price fluctuations but also to carve out their own development path through unique gameplay, exploring a broader future alongside numerous community members in the Meme cycle. As Trump is about to take office, the 'GameFi + Meme coin + ecological development' trinity of GMT is expected to welcome a new round of explosion! #GMT投票燃烧计划
