StepN is a household name in the Web3 space, especially after popularizing the concept of "Move to Earn", its influence spreads across the globe. After two years of low-key silence, StepN announced its eye-catching comeback on April 15, 2024, teaming up with sports giant Adidas to launch a new gameplay that combines physical sneakers and NFTs, which once again attracted widespread attention from the NFT community.
Looking back at 2022, StepN has enabled 3 million users around the world to own the first pair of virtual sneakers. This initiative has set off a craze not only in Japan, Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, but also in many places in China. These track and field enthusiasts use the StepN platform to obtain "NFT sneakers" in a "walk and earn" way, making daily walking or running not only a show-off on social media, but also an asset that can be directly converted into cash.
StepN reshapes the Web3 field: from "earning money while moving" to returning to the market focus
StepN has successfully transformed GameFi's "Play To Earn" model into "Move to Earn", which has attracted widespread attention, especially those who like to share their daily activity data on WeChat Moments or sports apps. This novel way of making money quickly became popular in the Web2 community.
However, the boom did not last long. In May 2022, facing the dual pressure of policy and market, StepN had to announce its withdrawal from the Chinese mainland market. This decision triggered a sharp drop in the price of its crypto assets, causing StepN to suffer the "death spiral" familiar to the GameFi field. Since then, StepN seems to have entered a period of irreversible decline.
However, the partnership with Adidas has brought new hope to StepN. This strategic cooperation not only brings StepN back into the spotlight of the industry, but also marks a major turnaround for its governance token GMT. StepN's development team, Find Satoshi Lab, launched a blockchain game called Gas Hero last year, which brought new application scenarios to GMT, making it not only limited to the Move to Earn model, but also expanded to the field of game tokens.
After two years of slump, can StepN, which has teamed up with the well-known brand Adidas, regain its former glory and recapture the market's attention? Whether this cooperation is enough to help StepN get rid of its previous difficulties and stand out again in the fiercely competitive Web3 market remains a question worth paying attention to.
StepN joins hands with Adidas to bring back the spotlight
StepN and Adidas have teamed up to launch an NFT sneaker called "STEPNxAdidas Genesis Sneakers", which has caused a sensation in the crypto market. This limited edition NFT sneaker, with a total of 1,000 pieces, is inspired by Adidas' classic running shoe silhouette and is built entirely on the Solana blockchain.
So far, 994 pieces of the STEPNxAdidas Genesis Sneakers series have been successfully minted on the MOOAR platform, with 629 different holders. These NFTs were purchased with StepN's governance token GMT. Currently, the floor price of each pair of NFTs has reached 20,000 GMT, which is equivalent to $4,800 based on the current market price of GMT of $0.24.
It is worth noting that these NFTs were initially distributed through a lottery on the MOOAR platform on April 17 at a price of 10,000 GMT (about $2,500). But in just one week, their floor price has doubled to 20,000 GMT, and the price in USDT (US dollar stablecoin) has increased by 92%.
Holders of this series of NFTs, especially members of the Adidas and StepN development team Find Satoshi Lab (FSL) communities, not only enjoyed a significant increase in floor prices, but also received exclusive benefits. In addition, StepN also held an airdrop event worth US$30 million for its loyal players and ecological asset holders, further enhancing user stickiness.
Overall, the launch of the STEPNxAdidas Genesis Sneakers not only showcases the innovative collaboration between the two brands, but also successfully enhances its appeal to old users, incentivizing their continued participation through exclusive benefits and high-value airdrops.
Dune data also shows that StepN's user activity increased before and after this launch event, but if these curves are compared with the data before August 2023, this rebound in activity is just a "small ripple."
The damage of the "death spiral" has not yet been repaired
StepN ended its operations in the Chinese market in May 2022 due to a statement that it would "comply with regulatory policies and stop providing GPS and IP location services to users in mainland China." This incident marked the end of StepN's highlight moment and triggered a plunge in the value of its ecosystem tokens GMT and GST, while the price of NFT sneakers also dropped sharply. This sudden market turmoil led to a series of asset sell-offs, accelerating the arrival of the "death spiral" familiar to the GameFi project.
Like the once popular blockchain game Axie Infinity, StepN's "dual token" economic model showed obvious weaknesses in the crisis. GST, as a reward token with unlimited supply but limited usage scenarios, is mainly used to upgrade the gaming experience, such as generating, repairing and upgrading NFT running shoes. The total amount of about 5.368 billion GMT serves as a governance token, which is used for NFT transactions and mortgage in in-game financial scenarios.
In order to restore the balance and save the value of the token, StepN worked hard to expand the application scenarios of the token, especially GMT. On the one hand, StepN promoted cooperation with the NFT market MOOAR, making GMT a key token for pre-release NFT voting on the MOOAR Launchpad, while allowing users to use GMT to trade NFTs or create AIGC NFT collections. On the other hand, StepN's development team Find Satoshi Lab launched the blockchain game "Gas Hero", in which GMT is directly used as an in-game consumable token to enhance game characters, etc., while also setting up incentives to increase GMT consumption.
Although GMT has rebounded from its historical low of $0.1 to $0.24, its year-to-date increase still shows -26.5%, which is still a long way from the high of $4.11 on April 28, 2022.
In addition, StepN’s cooperation with Adidas is not limited to NFT, and it also plans to launch physical products. Similar successful cases of NFT-to-physical goods include Pudgy Toys of the Pudgy Penguins series. This strategy aims to attract a wider consumer group and promote the sales of native NFTs.
As a product that was once popular, StepN has a solid user base and market experience. By cooperating with big brands like Adidas, StepN not only aims to maintain the loyalty of existing users, but also hopes to break through the market again through innovative applications, thereby attracting more traffic and capital, and promoting the appreciation of crypto assets within its ecosystem.
