[Coinlive Feature] Is STEPN, a move-to-earn game, still worth to invest right now?

STEPN is a Web3 lifestyle app with inbuilt Game-Fi and Social-Fi elements. Players can make handsome earning by walking, jogging, or running outdoors.

The above introduction is copied from STEPN homepage. By the way, if you have not heard of STEPN, it is a move-to-earn NFT game. Back to the slogan, every wording used can perfectly describe STEPN, except for the word ‘handsome’. Yes, STEPN used to generate handsome earning for players but not anymore, because of a sudden regional ban in China. Players in China are barred from playing STEPN starting July 15. The ban caused both of STEPN crypto currency and NFT plummeted. To understand the reason why, we have to learn the basic of STEPN first.

Announcement of STEPN barring players in China

First of all, anyone is free to download STEPN app on their iPhone or Android phone, and an invitation code is needed to access the app. You can easily find an invitation code through Telegram, Discord or even Reddit. However, to start playing STEPN, you have to purchase a pair of sneakers, in the form of NFT of course.

As a move-to-earn game, STEPN rewards players with cryptocurrency called Green Satoshi Token (GST) while they are walking, jogging, or running. STEPN is currently operating on 2 blockchains, Solana (SOL) and Binance Smart Chain (BSC). To reduce complexity of this article, I focus only on the ecosystem of BSC as its reward is more lucrative compare to SOL.

Player can switch to other blockchain easily

To start off STEPN, you need to get a pair of sneakers first. The floor price of sneakers NFT cost around 1.2 BNB (approx. ~USD$265) as of the time of writing. Bear in mind that the sneakers price might fluctuate dramatically, due to sudden spike of market demand and supply. After purchasing your very first pair of sneakers, you are granted 2 energy, which replenishes 25% (0.5 energy) every 6 hours. With a pair of sneakers, you can run and earn crypto for 10 minutes every 24 hours. After 10 minutes, there won’t be any more crypto reward.

User interface of STEPN

What if you wanted to run and earn more than 10 minutes every day? Buy more sneakers, as simple as that. A total of 3 sneakers NFT, which can be combined by both SOL and BSC, will grant players 4 energy; 9 sneakers NFT equal to 9 energy and so on. As STEPN is actively balancing the game ecosystem, the energy sharing feature will be removed in near future. Also, there are a lot of other features like trading, minting and jewel system in STEPN, which I am not going to deep dive as I just wanted to tackle this topic: whether STEPN is still worth to invest right now, solely by running.

As a 20-day old STEPN user, I would like to share with you all the true experience of playing STEPN. I believe some of us have heard of STEPN before the Chinese ban. And the reason why STEPN is famous (or infamous) is because of its NFT were charging at astronomical price. Back then, a pair of BSC sneakers would cost 15 BNB, approximately USD$6,000 during then. After Chinese government dropped the hammer on STEPN, these sneakers price plummeted more than 90% and many players suffered huge lost. STEPN’s downfall began from this point onwards.

The floor price of sneakers NFT on BSC, screenshotted on 24 May 2022

When the price of sneakers NFT dropped significantly, it attracted a lot of newcomers and yes, I am one of them. One of the biggest reasons that I decided to board this ship, is the lucrative daily reward. My first pair of the virtual sneakers cost me around 2 BNB (approx. ~USD$600), while GST was looking at USD$2 per piece. Given that I am earning a net of 8 GST per day, it will be USD$16, good enough to cover my daily meal expenses in Singapore. In terms of return on investment (ROI), it takes only 30 days to achieve 100% ROI. By then, my principal investment is covered and every dollar earn after is bonus. Sounds pretty good, right? It really is, provided GST can maintain its $2 mark.

Unfortunately, the good times don’t last long. The aftershock of China’s ban, together with ‘crypto winter’, GST was on its unstoppable bear run. At the time of writing, GST price is floating around $0.30 - $0.40, that’s a slump of more than 80% from $2. The drop of GST price means also the increase of investment time frame. Take my case as an example, assume I am earning a net of 8 GST (approx. ~USD$3.20) per day, my ROI shot up to a whooping 188 days. From a month time to half a year, this is no kidding. And don’t forget about the precious sneakers NFT, since both floor price and BNB dropped simultaneously, you may be losing your investment principal as well.

Price movement of GST (BSC)

Well, I might be the unlucky one who joined this game in the wrong time. So, how about newcomers? Let’s say a pair of sneakers cost $265 now and earning 8 GST as aforementioned, the ROI would be 83 days. Compare to what I have started back in 20 days ago, STEPN reward is no longer as lucrative as before, not to mention the high volatility of sneakers NFT and GST prices. Does this all mean that STEPN is definitely a no-no? I wouldn’t say so, even my targeted ROI has delayed to more than half a year. Compare to many other traditional investment instruments, a 100% ROI in just 188 days is pretty incredible. According to statistics, the average return of stock market, say S&P 500 for instance, is only 10% per annum. To achieve a 100% ROI on stocks, it would take a total of 7 years! Yet, no one can tell if STEPN will still exist 7 years later, while the stock market is always there as long as human is still running the world.

In my opinion, if you are looking to secure generational wealth via STEPN, the risk is too great. However, if you are interested to explore the world of crypto, blockchain, Game-Fi, Social-Fi, move-to-earn, NFT and even exercising, STEPN offers it all. For the entry price of just USD$265, I would say it is pretty worth enough. Regardless, kindly do your own research (DYOR) before any investment.

Written by: [Coinlive] Nell