The move-to-earn app STEPN saw its GMT token plummet over 20% in the last 24 hours. The platform has been the biggest highlight of the crypto market over the past 90 days, up more than 20,000% since its launch on March 9. However, the “reign” is over.
The token’s price drop reached more than 40% shortly after the app announced via Twitter that it was shutting down for all residents of China.
As announced by the game’s team, STEPN will terminate GPS services for all IPs coming from the Asian country.
Thus, as GPS is the key point to monitor users’ activities, without it, it will no longer be possible to record walks and runs. Therefore, it will no longer be possible to earn cryptocurrencies with the app in the country.
STEPN closes Chinese accounts
In addition, Chinese people who are still using the app even without GPS will have their accounts closed from July 2022.
According to the project, the initiative was a way of meeting Chinese regulatory policies.
Meanwhile, about Chinese users who own a NFT sneaker from the project, STEPN said they would have to make their own decisions about it.
1/ 關於清查中國大陸帳戶的公告
— STEPN GO (@Stepnofficial) May 26, 2022
尊敬的STEPN用戶:
為積極主動響應相關監管政策,STEPN將對軟體用戶進行清查,若發現中國大陸地區用戶,則STEPN將依據使用條款對其賬戶於2022年7月15日(UTC+8)24:00 停止提供GPS及IP位置服務。
“If you expect to log in and use your account from a GPS location, we recommend that you make your own decisions about handling assets in the app. During this time, more details will be sent to users via official social media announcements, emails, in-app alerts, etc.”
Chinese users account for 5% of the app’s three million users. Thus, with the important loss, STEPN’s GMT and GST tokens were hit significantly.
Since the announcement, GMT, for example, the game’s governance token, has dropped by more than 20%. As mentioned, it reached a peak of 40% drop. Likewise, GST, the token players earn in-game, dropped by 15% on Solana and 24% on BNB.
Both GMT and GST are now over 75% below their all-time highs recorded on April 28.