STEPN is a relatively young move-to-earn game on the blockchain. Today, it has gained immense popularity, and everyone who is even slightly interested in the NFT gaming industry has heard about this project. We periodically tell you about various innovations in the game. And today, we’ll talk about how the path of STEPN began.
History And Idea
STEPN was founded in August 2021 by Jerry Huang and Yang Ron of FindSatoshi Lab, a development studio in the gaming industry.
The partners consider themselves the founders of M2E, but this point remains controversial. You can read more about this in our article on the mechanics of moving to earn.
However, Jerry and Ian say that the idea of the move and earn concept came to them in a rather unorthodox way. Many people think it arose due to the desire to promote a healthy lifestyle, but everything is a little different. Initially, the developers wanted to create a game in the style of “Monopoly.” They discussed for a long time the rewards the user will receive for each move. And then they suddenly decided that the move could be physical. The player takes the usual steps in the real world and receives cryptocurrency for this.
Solana Hackathon
On October 29, 2021, the Solana Ignition hackathon took place. This is an event where various startups compete with each other to receive a grant from the Solana Ventures fund. Also among the sponsors were Microsoft, Metaplex, Jump Crypto, etc.
Then almost 6,000 participants presented 568 finished projects in several categories: DeFi, Web3, Gaming, Digital Art & Collectables. There were 5 winners in each category.
STEPN ranked 4th among gaming projects and received funding from Solana Ventures.
It is worth noting that this is the only mobile game included in the number of winners. Here are a few points that the judges highlighted when they argued their choice in favor of STEPN:
- quality game design
- built-in marketplace
- straightforward user interface
- convenient wallet
- the goal is to convince many people who were not familiar with cryptocurrencies to join the web3 world.
By the way, this goal, which was set last year, was certainly achieved by the project. STEPN has gained immense popularity among users who have never encountered crypto wallets and NFTs.
Way To Success
Private beta testing began on November 3, 2021. For a mass audience, the STEPN app became available for download on IOS and Android devices on December 20, 2021. And since the project was founded in August, it managed to go from the initial stage to open beta in just five months.
On January 20, 2022, STEPN raised a $5 million seed funding round from leading industry investors such as Sequoia Capital, Folius Ventures, and more.
In early March, the ICO of the STEPN management token took place. Back then, GMT could be purchased for $0.01 per token. That is, even the current GMT rate on the market fall allows the holder to get 77 x when selling.
In the first quarter of 2022, STEPN earned $ 26,815,807 from NFT sales on its embedded marketplace. The team decided to use the profits to buy back some of the GMT on the secondary market and burn it.
In April 2022, STEPN partnered with Nori to channel part of its profits towards carbon neutrality, again drawing attention to the importance of caring for the environment.
In early April 2022, Binance Labs invested in STEPN. In the same month, STEPN announced the release of a limited edition sneaker collection in collaboration with the ASICS brand. A little later, this was followed by introducing the second world into the game – BNB Chain.
At the end of April 2022, STEPN tokens reached an all-time high: the price of GMT was $4, and GST (Solana) was almost $8. Later, the GST token reached $27 on the BNB network and $7.9 on the Ethereum network.
Summarize
So, STEPN has come a long way in development in a short time. Now all kinds of updates and game mechanics continue to be introduced. The project is developing despite the pressure of the bear market. And it is worth noting that the creators do not give in to panic among the audience due to the rapidly falling GST rate. On the contrary, they do a lot to support the project’s economics in the long run.
Finally, you can familiarize yourself with the roadmap of the project.
