- STEPN’s daily unique users surge to over 150,000, a 3x growth this month.
- STEPN’s profit metrics jump 7X past previous high to $88 million.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) come in all shapes and sizes. One of the recent developments in the space is a play-to-earn game called STEPN on the Solana blockchain. With a mix of health and fitness and crypto and NFTs, STEPN is making big moves, not only with its shoes but also on the charts.
The first wave of NFTs was unique pieces of art, the next was collectables, and then the wave kicked off. Now, we’re seeing unique use-cases of NFTs from utilities in the metaverse to entry tickets at concerts. STEPN is certainly the next wave of NFTs. And this wave is about to kick off.
Shoes Earn Coin
STEPN allows users to earn tokens while walking, running, hiking, or during any other form of locomotive fitness. But to track these forms of movement, users have to buy a pair of shoes using SOL tokens. Based on the attributes of the shoe, number of shoes held by the user, pace of physical activity, and distance covered, users can earn tokens.
The NFT game has two tokens – GST which serve as in-game points and GMT a native governance token. GST can be earned through moving or leasing the shoes to other players. It can also be burned and spent on the platform for upgrades and to buy additional shoes. However, initial purchases are in SOL tokens. At press time, GST was trading at just above $4.5, or a 37% increase since its price at the end of March.
With the simplistic earning nature of the game and real liquid value of the GST tokens, the number of active SOL users on STEPN is skyrocketing. On April 20, the platform had 150,000 active users, up 3X since the end of last month.
Massive Growth In GST Deposited
Given the massive increase in the game’s user base and the early stage of development, one would think the profit metrics of the platform don’t hold up. But the data indicates otherwise.
According to data from Dune Analytics, the profit for the NFT game surged to $88 million on April 19, over seven times the previous daily profit high.
The game measures profit as the inflow of SOL tokens minus the outflow of GST tokens. As GST tokens are native to the game, and SOL native to the blockchain it operates on, the game can activate immediate liquidity with SOL, but not with GST.
Further data indicates that the majority of SOL inflows are because users want to buy shoes. It’s not for flipping but to directly use the game, purchase the shoes, and earn GST tokens. This means that the SOL deposited will be used to fund the GST paid out to users.
Given this massive jump in inflows of SOL compared to outflow of GST, the game’s revenue proposition is growing. This makes for a unique case study into the growth of play-to-earn games which have a real-world fitness aspect over a mere digital world aspect. If STEPN succeeds, complete with its unique token model, it could start a new wave of NFTs.
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