The “move-to-earn” health app reportedly laid off over 100 contract staff. together with group moderators, ambassadors, and others, in accordance with reports from the South China Morning Post and crypto information author Colin Wu of Wu Blockchain. But the corporate tells Decrypt that these are “baseless claims which can be factually inaccurate.”
“The actuality is that STEPN has parted methods with volunteer MODs who haven’t been energetic in the previous couple of weeks and months,” a STEPN spokesperson says. “Regarding our workers, STEPN is actively hiring for a number of totally different roles inside the firm.”
The “Careers” tab on the STEPN web site, the place candidates can fill out a kind expressing curiosity in working for the corporate, continues to be stay.
Launched in 2021, STEPN is an app the place customers purchase digital trainers as NFTs which permit them to earn STEPN’s native token, GMT, by logging steps IRL. The digital footwear, which deteriorate over time, had been as soon as among the many hottest items in crypto.
In May and June this yr, STEPN noticed a large spike in month-to-month energetic customers, logging over 700,000 in May and practically 500,000 in June in accordance with data from Dune Analytics.
But when July rolled round, STEPN noticed a large dropoff. It noticed 50% much less month-to-month energetic customers in July. It had 140,000 in August, and simply 99,000 in September. The variety of each day energetic customers has additionally sharply declined, down from a peak of 58,000 on June 21 to only 5,800 on September 15.
And per CoinGecko data, GMT isn’t doing properly, both. The token is down 84% from its all-time excessive and down 15% in simply the previous month.
This exponential decline can’t be good for STEPN. It begs the query: what’s the firm doing to maintain itself afloat?
STEPN Co-Founder Yawn Rong wrote on Twitter Tuesday that STEPN goes by way of a “transitional interval.”
“We can be devoting all of our assets to progressing to the subsequent stage of FSL,” Rong stated, referring to Find Satoshi Lab, STEPN’s dad or mum firm. “Over the subsequent few weeks, we can be shifting gears as we evolve our imaginative and prescient,” he wrote. “Through this transitional interval, we won’t depart you in the dead of night.”
3/5 This month, we’re specializing in the street forward. We are operating on! Our staff should think about ongoing initiatives full-time, so we won’t be internet hosting an October Town Hall. In the meantime, we can be devoting all of our assets to progressing to the subsequent stage of FSL.
According to Wu, which means STEPN is winding down. Citing group sources, he wrote that the corporate is decreasing its funding in STEPN, delaying improvement progress.
“It started to deal with selling its dad or mum firm Find Satoshi Lab, and primarily centered on new initiatives to be launched such because the NFT change market,” Wu wrote late Tuesday night.
It started to deal with selling its dad or mum firm Find Satoshi Lab, and primarily centered on new initiatives to be launched such because the NFT change market. In addition, the massive quantity of GMT’s investor saft can be unlocked in March subsequent yr.
But STEPN says this evolution doesn’t imply its days are numbered.
“We stay robust and proceed to construct, develop, and evolve regardless of the bear market,” the STEPN spokesperson tells Decrypt. “We delight ourselves in being clear with our group and we’re selecting to handle these rumors head on to keep away from any additional hypothesis on falsehoods.”
“We at STEPN are disenchanted that we even have to handle baseless rumors, however we are going to proceed to do what we do greatest,” the corporate added.
The problem for STEPN is evident. When requested about STEPN final week, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko told Decrypt that “it labored for lots of customers.”
“The massive unknown is, is it scalable, and may you get the economies to work out the place folks derive a profit from the train that principally exceeds the cash they’re spending into the platform?”
Editor’s notice: this text has been up to date to incorporate a response from STEPN to the unique layoff reviews.
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