Here at STEPN, we’ve been extremely grateful for all the excitement, support, and engagement we have seen from the community.

It’s been a whirlwind of emotions seeing our dream grow into a reality.

We’ve truly put our blood, sweat, and tears into this platform for the past several months, working long nights to create something that will help make the world a healthier place.

We’re continuing to work hard to reach more people and encourage them to build healthy habits, and spending more time with their loved ones outside.

We recently got invited to CryptoBahamas — a leading industry event where some of the industry stalwarts (like Sam Bankman Fried) to thought leaders (eg Bill Clinton, Tony Blair) to the biggest names from all walks of life (Tom Brady, Katy Perry, Gisele Bundchen) took the stage. It is on this magnificent stage that STEPN got to share its story — the story of love and respect that it gets from its users and the industry alike! We got asked about it a lot so thought of sharing it with you all.

This is how our story goes…

Parabolic growth

We’re blessed to say that our growth has been quite astronomical. In under six months of launching our public beta last year, STEPN has blossomed into a vibrant community of over 2.3 mn monthly active users and attracted over half a million daily active users’’. On March 30th, our governance token (GMT) exceeded trading volumes of even Bitcoin and Ethereum — phenomenal statistics, even in the web3 space.

How did this happen?

It certainly wasn’t luck or overnight success. Like any web3 project, there is definitely a level of hype that has been a part of our growth. But underpinning that is a strong foundation that we have paid the utmost attention to, from game design to tokenomics, utility to business strategy.

Today, we will be outlining some core factors that have helped STEPN succeed — and which we strongly believe will help us make a huge impact on the health of millions of people around the world.

1) We are the first crypto app with mass, diverse appeal

STEPN appeals to a massive audience.

“I have never seen a crypto application generate this much outside interest,” said Nat Eliason, an online writer and web3 consultant. People across the world who have never dabbled in crypto before are now adopting STEPN, making it their first-ever entry into the space. A hundred thousand people are using the app every minute — running alongside not in Metaverse but in reality!

Why? Because the value proposition is simple — move outside for a certain amount of time and you will get rewarded in crypto. Yes, there’s some barriers to knowledge and some barriers to setting up, but the incentives to overcome these barriers are getting easier to overcome, especially as friends help other friends set up their sneakers.

Most importantly, users don’t need to understand the economics or engineering behind the scenes in order to participate. Many web3 projects require a vast amount of stops and starts, as well as an understanding of confusing jargon in order to get started. For STEPN, the premise is almost as simple as it can be. Move outside and earn crypto.

And in the future, with the implementation of a rental system, the onboarding process will be made even smoother.

As a result, we are truly optimistic about fulfilling our mission — onboarding the most diverse set of consumers that web3 has ever seen.

2) We are here to revolutionize health and fitness

The fitness and wellness industry is worth well over 4 trillion dollars. Yet the state of our collective health has never been worse.

• Obesity costs the US alone nearly $210 billion every year, while 1.4 billion people across the world don’t get enough exercise, according to the WHO.
• Meanwhile, 61% of people aged 18 to 25 say they report high levels of loneliness — which is closely tied to higher risks of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality.
• Since March 2020, rates of depression and anxiety skyrocketed over 300% while suicidal ideation doubled.

It’s clear that something needs to change, but lack of technology or resources doesn’t seem to be the issue. We have an abundance of fancy wearables, $1,000 Pelotons, and boutique cycling classes. Last year, investments in digital mental health therapy reached record highs, with three of the highest-funded quarters ever.

The issue, instead, seems to be that we’re overcomplicating things… perhaps it’s time to take it back to basics. Walking and running are some of the simplest and most accessible forms of exercise that we have.

STEPN is pioneering the move-to-earn movement, incentivizing exercise and paying people to workout — giving people everywhere an instant, clear incentive to get healthy.

Thus, not only is STEPN rewarding users financially, but it’s also providing an array of intangible rewards: people are losing weight and developing consistent exercise routines for the first time in their lives, they’re spending more time with their friends and family outdoors, and they’re getting happier and healthier with every step they take.

3) We stand on the shoulders of giants

We are well aware of the delicate nature of designing a robust, thriving economy. As STEPN explodes in popularity, we’re quickly becoming a virtual country ourselves. That comes with all the complexities of designing a monetary policy for a country in real life.

That’s why we look to examples of who have come before us — even real-world historical examples, such as the 1997 Asian financial crisis — and carefully study ways to avoid economic meltdowns. In the play-to-earn space, this sort of hyperinflation, which leads to a “doom cycle” of asset devaluation, has already occurred several times.

The most prominent example is Axie Infinity, which saw the price of SLP, its in-game currency, plunge over 90% in the past several months.

Axie has pioneered the play-to-earn space and paved the way for all other x-to-earn startups. Unfortunately, it’s facing inflation challenges now, driven by the fact that more players are cashing out their SLP rather than reinvesting them. With insufficient demand, the token is expectedly depreciating, which drives even more players to cash out into more lucrative stores of value. As a result, mass capital flight ensues.

So how are we setting ourselves apart?

For one, we’ve been diligent in designing the game to be inherently fun and positively addicting. And we encourage users who are there to, not just earn tokens and NFT rewards, but strengthen their relationships within their communities (walking together and leveling up sneakers together).

This presents a hedge against those who are only walking to earn as much as they can and then cash out their earnings (which drives inflation). In other words, we’re ensuring a vast majority of the STEPN community aren’t just here for cash — they are here for all the other intangibles — better health, better relationships, and better mood.

Secondly, we have plans to roll out features beyond just breeding, repairing, or upgrading sneakers that will address the delicacy of move-to-earn tokenomics. The GMT token, for example, will also be used as a way for users to vote on donating to carbon offsetting programs and we plan to integrate social-fi elements that go beyond move-to-earn, adding more value to GMT and building in more robust use cases for the token. And we’ve also built in key incentives, known as “game sinks,” for users to retain their assets and continue to reinvest in the game.

Closing Thoughts

What we’ve laid out above are just a few of the things that have contributed to our success as we build STEPN and plan for the platform’s future.

As the metaverse gets more and more integrated into our lives, we also plan on blooming into a social platform, which involves bolstering our product as a signaling-as-a-service mechanism, combining the positive power of social signaling with fitness achievements. And we’re continuing to leverage key partnerships in the fitness space, such as our recent release with premier activewear brand ASICS.

Most importantly, we are committed to being a responsible company that adds more good into the world. We’re dedicated to promoting diversity in web3 and helping to build a greener web3.

We do this for the planet, for the health of our friends and families, and to reach millions of people across the world, to help them lead a better, healthier, and happier life.

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