Since November last year, market enthusiasm has gradually shifted from the GameFi to the NFT market, and the GameFi projects have stayed in the doldrums. Even the leading player Axie Infinity saw its governance token AXS suffering a drop of over 60% from its ATH. Although from time to time we can read some news about GameFi projects getting financed, the market focus is still on the NFT market, especially the PFP segment.
On March 12, Yuga Labs announced the acquisition of the CryptoPunks and Meebits NFT series developed by Larva Labs. Yuga Labs plans to open up the full commercial rights of these two NFT series to holders.
The acquirer, Yuga Labs, is the parent company of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), and Yuga Labs says the BAYC ecosystem will continue to be the "center of its universe." On March 17, Yuga Labs announced the launch of the APE token, and an airdrop for BAYC and MAYC holders, successfully involving the crypto community. According to the official tweet, $APE is a token that symbolizes the crypto culture, gaming and commerce and will be used to build a decentralized community exploring the frontiers of Web3.
After Bored Ape, STEPN, which launched the "Move to Earn" model, has become the most recent hot trend in the GameFi circuit and is currently Solana's #1 ranked game. It is ranked fourth in the Japanese app market and third in the US sports app. Currently, STEPN has more than 60,000 daily active users. According to CMC data, its governance token GMT rose 200 times in half a month, and the 24-hour turnover reached $589 million, far exceeding BTC and ETH. Therefore, we can see how the crypto market doesn't lack money but innovative projects, and when these come there will always be hype, and they'll attract attention naturally.
From play-to-earn's Axie, to write-to-earn's Monaco, to move-to-earn's StepN, a new game can always attract a lot of attention in a short time. In terms of game setup and token model, StepN is not fundamentally different from Axie (at least as of this moment), but its game experience will give people a sense of "out of the loop", providing a long-awaited buzz to the market after the first quarter of downturn.
In the midst of all the praise, STEPN has also been accused of being a rip-off of QUBU. However, a careful analysis of the economic model and gameplay of the two shows that there are essential differences. QUBU's economic model turned out to be a Ponzi scheme that involved payment of dividends to people and the issuance of more and more passes without any consumption scenarios, which eventually led to the collapse of prices and the failure of the project. The goal of STEPN is to promote a healthier lifestyle for millions of people and bring them into the Web 3.0 world, while making a positive contribution to carbon neutrality.
StepN has quickly become a global phenomenon, sparking extensive conversations within the industry. Its success is a result of many things: the choice of a niche market; the satisfaction of user needs; the rapid development and implementation of the team; the thoughtfulness of the economic model and gameplay; the support of a large number of industry leaders and the Binance platform IEO.
So, what does STEPN's future look like? To paraphrase a famous basketball saying, maybe the sky is the limit for them. Some speculate that with the current growth trends, this Web3 app could become the next Axie Infinity, and possibly even surpass Axie Infinity, as its product appeals to an audience that is not limited to the Web3 space, but combines the power of both fitness and crypto. Now, the STEPN team is ready to scale and innovate quickly, while thinking strategically ahead in game design and community management to build a solid foundation to support long-term and sustainable growth.
Of course, one of the main reasons why STEPN has made a huge impact on Web3 is their real-world reach, leveraging Web3 while helping people "disengage" from it and enter the real world.
Web3 is already changing the way users interact online, from the way we invest and exchange value, to the games we play, to our artistic and creative expression on social media, or whatever happens next. More and more users and institutions around the world are seeking the power of Web3's de-trusted, immutable and verifiable financial protocols. MEME Exchange might be the next big breakthrough in the industry.
MEME Exchange is the world's first Web3 exchange, which requires no KYC to register and a simple wallet authorization to participate in crypto transactions. The trading platform' main features are lightweight protocols, secure transactions, professional service, contract-focused trading system, and ultra-high performance.
According to the publicly available information, MEME's trading platform is built by a team of financial experts and network engineers from different countries. Based on the huge capital market of Web3 exchanges and the strong team behind it, MEME Exchange has been highly evaluated by the industry before it was launched.
Undoubtedly, with the support of both team and capital, MEME Exchange will quickly profit from its first-mover advantage in the Web3 industry. The coming of the MEME Exchange might completely disrupt the contract trading market, causing a large number of contract traders to enter the Web3 for the first time and trigger the next hot trend.