Can STEPN (GMT) make Money from Exercise?
STEPN (GMT) is one of the strangest DeFi projects around. Interestingly, the developers claim STEPN can encourage exercise through NFTs and Web3.
To explain, STEPN is a decentralized app (DApp) that uses gamification and social media to encourage people to exercise. STEPN gives users nonfungible tokens (NFT) Sneakers to reward people for walking, jogging and running. They hope to reward STEPN users with the GST utility token.
STEPN users will buy or rent NFT sneakers and move to earn (jog, walk, or run). Renters and earners can earn GST by moving, burning calories, or offsetting carbon (not-using fossil fuel burning transportation). The hope is that STEPN will become a habit forming machine that will encourage people to exercise.
A Habit Forming Machine
The STEPN (GMT) designers think they can leverage human psychology to make exercise addictive. To explain, they STEPN can make exercise addictive by paying people to exercise.
The developers plan to use part of STEPN’s profits to buy carbon removal credits on the blockchain to combat climate chains. They call STEPN a a Web3 Fitness app. STEPN users will earn GST tokens and use the STEPN wallet to swap GST for GMT.
They call STEPN a Social-Fi (social finance) app because it uses social-media techniques to encourage use by giving people a dopamine rush. They call STEPN a Game-Fi (gamification) app because it makes exercise into a game which is fun to play and win.
How STEPN Makes Money
They hope the STEPN ecosystem will make money by charging small taxes or fees for NFT trading, shoe-rental, and shoe-minting.
To explain, STEPN users can create (mint) shoes and rent shoes to people who can earn GST by exercise. Currently, shoe renters will earn 30% of the GST a sneaker earns, while owners will receive 70% of the shoe’s earnings.
The STEPN team plans to raise funds through private sales and Binance Launch Sale rewards. They plan to use 3.3% of the GMT on the STEPN ecosystem and treasury, and 7% on the Binance Launch Pad sales. Conversely, they hope to devote 14.9% of the GMT proceeds to private sales by August 2025.
STEPN (GMT) was the 28th Binance Launchpad Sale held on 2 March through 9 March 2022. They allocated 420 million GMT to the Binance Launchpad Sale. The Binance Launchpad is a token launch platform on the Binance Smart Chain operated by Binance.
They began STEPN beta testing in November 2022. STEPN began in-app trade functioning and an in-app marketplace in January 2022. They launched the IEO/IDO wallet upgrade in March 2022. STEPN hopes to launch a multichain upgrade in April 2022.
Currently, the STEPN apps are available for Android in Google Play and iPhone in the Apple App Store. Thus, STEPN has an app which the public can use, which is far more than what many apps have.
What Value Does STEPN Offer?
I think STEPN (GMT) could gain enormous value because it can enter a profitable business exercise and athletic footwear.
For instance, Allied Market Research estimates the value of the global athletic footwear market at $109.7 billion 2020. The global athletic footwear market could grow to $165 billion in 2030.
Hence, STEPN is peddling an NFT version of a product for which there is an enormous demand for athletic footwear. However, there is no evidence anybody will pay money for NFT sneakers or accept crypto pay for exercise. Yet it’s an interesting project Mr. Market likes.
Mr. Market Shows Enormous Interest in GMT
Mr. Market is showing enormous interest in STEPN (GMT). For example, CoinMarketCap named STEPN the most trending cryptocurrency on 31 March 2022. Similarly, STEPN was CoinMarketCap’s 74th largest cryptocurrency on 7 April 2022.
CoinMarketCap gave STEPN a $2.08 Coin Price, a $1.250 billion Market Cap, a $12.504 billion Fully Diluted Market Cap, and a 24-Hour Market Volume of $1.261 billion on 7 March 2022. They base those numbers on a Circulating Supply of 600 million GMT, a Maximum Supply of 600 million GMT, and a Total Supply of 600 million GMT.
So yes, STEPN could offer enormous value if the public accepts its premise. Therefore, I consider STEPN a cryptocurrency that could experience enormous growth if move-to-earn becomes a real thing.
Originally published at https://marketmadhouse.com on April 7, 2022.