After the value of the cryptocurrency Luna almost returned to zero, the cryptocurrency market attracted attention again. This time, it was stepn, a popular "running shoe" project in the currency circle. On May 27, stepn suddenly announced that it would refund mainland users, causing the prices of GMT and GST, the project tokens, to plunge by nearly 40%. However, with the easing of market sentiment, as of press time, the prices of the two tokens had rebounded.
Stop providing GPS and IP location services before July 15
In the early morning of May 27, Beijing time, stepn released the announcement on clearing and returning accounts in Chinese Mainland on its official social media, saying that it would check software users. If users in Chinese Mainland were found, GPS and IP location services would be stopped for their accounts according to the terms of use at 24:00 on July 15, 2022 (utc+8).
Stepn said in the announcement that if users expect to log in and use their accounts at GPS or IP locations in Chinese Mainland for a long time, they are encouraged to make their own decisions to deal with the assets in the application.
As for the reasons for clearing users from Chinese Mainland, stepn explained in the announcement that it was "to actively respond to relevant regulatory policies".
On September 24 last year, the people's Bank of China issued the notice on further preventing and disposing of the risks of speculation in virtual currency transactions, reiterating that the business activities related to virtual currency are illegal financial activities. Among them, the provision of services by overseas virtual currency exchanges to domestic residents through the Internet is also an illegal financial activity. The domestic staff of relevant overseas virtual currency exchanges, as well as legal persons, non legal persons and natural persons who know or should know that they are engaged in virtual currency related businesses and still provide them with marketing publicity, payment and settlement, technical support and other services, shall be investigated for relevant responsibilities according to law.
After the release of the notice, some cryptocurrency trading platforms successively announced that users in Chinese Mainland would be dismissed. Among them, money security C2C was removed from the CNY trading area at 24:00 on December 31 last year, and the platform users will be checked at the same time. If the platform finds users in Chinese Mainland, their corresponding accounts will be switched to the "withdrawal only" mode, and users will only be able to withdraw, cancel orders, redeem and close positions.
At present, it is not clear whether stepn is based on this regulatory policy to dismiss users in Chinese Mainland.
Stepn disclosed in the announcement that since its establishment, it has not engaged in any business in Chinese Mainland and has not provided a download channel. "Stepn has always attached importance to compliance obligations and has always strictly complied with the relevant requirements of local regulators."
Stepn token plummeted by nearly 40%
The announcement of clearing users in Chinese Mainland triggered a sharp fall in the token GMT of the stepn project.
In fact, before the announcement of clearing Chinese Mainland users was issued, GMT began to dive at noon on May 26, falling all the way from the price around $1.32 to $0.80423, a maximum decline of nearly 40%. However, as the market sentiment eased, GMT prices also rebounded. As of press time, the latest price was about $1.04.
At the same time, the game token GST in the stepn project also plummeted, with a drop of more than 20%.
"Here comes the second Luna?" On social media, there are people in the currency circle who leave messages like this.
The valuation has exceeded US $1billion and is questioned to have Ponzi characteristics
Stepn is one of the hottest coin circle projects in early 2022, focusing on the concept of "move to earn". To put it simply, stepn is a game app based on blockchain technology. It supports users to own NFT in the form of sneakers, and earn token income by walking or running outdoors in the real world. To participate in the game, players need to have NFT sneakers launched by stepn before they can participate in the game. Therefore, "running shoes" NFT has also become one of the symbols of the project.
Stepn mainly uses two currencies: game token GST and governance token GMT. Among them, GST is mainly used to upgrade the game experience, such as making, repairing and upgrading running shoes, or upgrading gems, unlocking sockets, etc; GMT is mainly used for trading, live in game mortgage, etc.
The playing method of earning tokens while running has enabled stepn users to grow rapidly. During the one month period from March to April this year, the number of daily living users increased from 30000 to 400000, the number of registered users exceeded 1million, and the valuation exceeded 1billion US dollars.
Previously, stepn completed the $5million seed round led by Sequoia Capital India and folius ventures in January this year, and obtained the strategic investment from binance labs in April.
However, the question about whether the stepn project is a Ponzi scheme has never stopped. Some analysts believe that stepn adopts a dual token economic model, in which the total amount of GST is unlimited and the total amount of GMT is 6billion. This token economy that purely relies on economic models to attract users is also a kind of "Ponzi scheme".