STEPN, a cryptocurrency trading game that offers nonfungible tokens (NFTs), will ban users in mainland China in order to comply with Chinese regulatory standards. Starting from mid-summer, the move-to-earn game will block geolocation services for users in mainland China. The token’s price dropped significantly following the announcement, losing 40% of its value within hours.
STEPN removes GPS in China for regulation purposes
The company’s concerns have been fueled by reports that it will get compelled to migrate from mainland China. STEPN is a popular “move-to-earn” game based on Solana and BNB Chain, created by two Chinese emigrants now living in Australia.
STEPN, a game that got released at the end of 2021, has received a lot of attention worldwide. During the first quarter of 2022, STEPN generated approximately $20 million in revenue. The game presently has thousands of global players, although it’s unclear how many users of the play-to-earn game are from China. According to Dune Analytics’ numbers, the game has more than 580,000 users and about 39,000 actives in the previous 24 hours.
The popular fitness-focused game confirmed that it would be terminating the provision of GPS services to China-based IP addresses on July 15, as announced in the anunț oficial. According to the company, local users will have to make arrangements for their virtual assets before implementing the change.
STEPN operations are based on GPS technology, which records users’ footsteps and motions after purchasing virtual NFT sneakers and converts them into in-game usage tokens. Come mid-July, STEPN will close all mainland Chinese-based accounts for regulatory reasons. The platform advises long-term residents of China who wish to sell their assets on the platform before then to do so if feasible.
The news sparked a market drop, with investors selling assets. The floor price of a “sneaker” on the platform prior to April’s launch of STEPN was about 13 SOL, but it has since decreased to just 8 SOL. Also, STEPN’s utility token, GMT, has plummeted by about 30% in the past 24 hours, most of it occurring after the news.