Ascendant web3 fitness-tracking app Stepn continues to see consistent growth as the app’s closed beta slowly opens to more users. The app crossed 600,000 cumulative users who have made a transaction with their in-app wallet as of Saturday, May 28th. There was also a notable increase in daily active users throughout Q2.
What is Stepn?
Stepn is a mobile app that uses GPS and your phone’s accelerometer to track movement distance, direction, and speed to gauge fitness output. Users are able to purchase Stepn’s in-game shoe NFTs, which allow the user to earn the platform’s native token, GST, as a reward for engaging in exercise. The NFTs currently correspond to three activities—walking, jogging, and running—each requiring the user to move within a speed range commensurate with each movement. Walking requires moving between 1-6 km/h, jogging requires 4-10 km/h, and running requires 8-20 km/h.
When the user completes an activity, they are rewarded with GST. GST can be used to repair your shoe NFT (which degrades over time with use), upgrade your shoe to higher levels to unlock greater earning power or mint new shoes. The chart below shows cumulative shoe minting, which has trended steadily upwards over Q2. This growth is both the expected result of sustained user growth, but also a sign of new and returning users reinvesting their activity rewards.
We can also see a slight upward trend in “Shoes Per User,” which is a further sign of reinvestment and a positive sign of the growth of the app’s ecosystem. Each user has the option to purchase multiple shoes from the in-app marketplace, or they can mint new shoes using GST earned by completing activities. An increase in shoes per user shows an increasing investment in the game—both from outside investment and reinvestment of in-game rewards. It is always an option for users to withdraw their GST or GMT (Stepn’s other native currency), so a steady rise in asset purchases points to increasing adoption.
What Is the Entry Price?
The entry price to buy a shoe NFT fluctuates day by day. As of this writing, the floor price for any shoe in the marketplace is 8 SOL, equivalent to $341.76. Over the past several days (from 5/25-5/28), SOL has stayed in a tight range between ~$42-44, while the floor price for any sneaker has ranged between a low of 8 SOL and a high of ~12 SOL.
How Do I Participate?
Currently, the only way to gain access to the app (which is still in beta) is to find an unused invite code. Registered users can send out two invite codes per account. Codes are also posted on Stepn’s Discord every 12 minutes, but these codes are first-come-first-serve, so you’ll have to be quick to beat the crowd.
Once you have a code, you can create an account in the Stepn app and enter your invite code when prompted. Once in the game, you can take a tour of the app, and set up your in-game wallet. This will allow you to transfer in SOL from an outside source, which is required to purchase assets in-game.
After transferring in a SOL balance, you can browse the app’s sneaker marketplace to find a shoe that works for your exercise preference and budget. Once you have purchased the sneaker, it can be equipped on the home page of the app. From there, you can press ‘start’ and begin exercising within the NFTs movement speed range. The app will track your activity and calculate rewards automatically, which will be reflected in your in-app wallet.
A friendly security reminder for web3 newcomers: do not respond to DM solicitations that request or offer unused codes or anything else. Scammers use this tactic to lure people into DMs to attempt to steal personal information.
Also, never reveal recovery keys/secret keys to anyone for any reason. Revealing your public wallet address is okay (but only if you want to dox yourself). Be careful where you post your public wallet address, though (it’s like publicly posting your email address).