Move-to-Earn Game Ecosystem Overview: Market Landscape and Investment Opportunities

When every step you take and every workout you do can earn you cryptocurrency, it sounds like science fiction, but it has already become a reality. Move-to-Earn (M2E) games cleverly combine traditional fitness with blockchain incentives, allowing users to earn digital assets while improving their health. The core logic of this emerging ecosystem is simple: exercise is tracked, quantified, and rewarded through smart contracts.

Core Operating Mechanism of the M2E Ecosystem

The infrastructure of the Move-to-Earn model relies on smartphone sensors or wearable devices to track user movements. Once the exercise data is verified and securely recorded, users can receive corresponding tokens or NFTs as rewards. These rewards can be spent within the app’s ecosystem or traded on cryptocurrency exchanges.

Different M2E platforms adopt varied access strategies. Projects like STEPN use an NFT threshold system, requiring users to purchase virtual sneaker NFTs to start earning tokens; while Sweatcoin opts for a more inclusive approach, requiring no upfront investment—just download the app to participate. These two approaches represent two development paths within the M2E ecosystem: high entry/high reward vs. low entry/wide coverage.

Emerging projects like Fight Out and MetaGym are exploring innovative mechanisms such as heart rate tracking and social competitions, aiming to enhance user engagement through increased competitiveness and community interaction.

Market Status: Token Market Cap and User Base

From a market perspective, the Move-to-Earn sector maintains a certain level of attention. According to statistics, the total market cap of M2E-related projects approaches $700 million (as of April 2024), with over 30 major projects in the industry. While this scale is not as large as traditional GameFi, it demonstrates the ecosystem’s health and growth potential.

In-Depth Analysis of Leading Projects

STEPN (GMT): Leading Move-to-Earn Chain Game

STEPN remains unchallenged in the Move-to-Earn space. As a flagship project built on the Solana blockchain, STEPN uses a dual-token model: GST for in-game transactions and NFT upgrades, and GMT for governance and advanced features.

Users enter the game by purchasing and equipping NFT sneakers, supporting Solo mode (walk alone to earn GST), Marathon mode (virtual races), and Backend mode (accumulate steps without opening the app). This flexible earning approach allows STEPN to cater to different user types.

Data shows that in April 2024, STEPN announced an airdrop of 100 million GMT tokens to the community (based on FSL ID). However, user activity faces pressure—monthly active users dropped from a peak of 700,000 to below 35,000, reflecting a cooling-off period common in the industry. Despite this, GMT remains the largest project by market cap in the M2E sector, with a circulating market value of $45.77 million, indicating market confidence in its long-term prospects.

Sweat Economy (SWEAT): Mass Adoption Path

Sweat Economy has adopted a completely different business model from STEPN—no NFT purchase required, anyone can download the app and start earning. This strategy has proven effective: the project has over 150 million users across Web2 and Web3, and was named the most popular fitness app in 2022.

The platform runs on the NEAR blockchain, inheriting its high efficiency and low fees. Sweat Economy has designed a sustainable token economy—by dynamically adjusting mining difficulty, it gradually reduces token issuance to combat inflation. This forward-looking design is relatively rare among M2E projects.

Currently, SWEAT has a circulating market cap of $10.61 million, making it a representative of mass-market M2E applications.

Step App (FITFI): Cross-Chain Expansion Attempts

Step App is built on the Avalanche chain, with an economic model centered around dual tokens: KCAL as activity rewards, and FITFI for governance and staking. Users earn KCAL by walking or running, which can be used to purchase and upgrade sneaker NFTs.

The project has over 300,000 users across more than 100 countries, who have accumulated 1.4 billion steps and earned over 2.3 billion KCAL rewards. These figures demonstrate a solid user base. The current circulating market cap of FITFI is $2.31 million.

Genopets (GENE): Combining NFTs and Fitness

Genopets converts each user’s exercise data into energy for virtual pets. Every step you take enhances your digital companion, and this anthropomorphic design greatly increases appeal.

Built on the Solana NFT ecosystem, the Genesis Genopets NFT series has a historical trading volume exceeding 146,000 SOL. The platform uses GENE and KI dual tokens, supporting NFT trading, habitat purchases, and multi-layered participation.

dotmoovs (MOOV): New Dimension of Competitive Sports

dotmoovs integrates sports, blockchain, and artificial intelligence, allowing users to participate in peer-to-peer sports competitions. The AI system scores performances based on creativity, rhythm, technique, etc., and winners earn MOOV tokens. This design elevates M2E from passive step counting to active competition.

Deployed on the Polygon chain, the project supports NFT trading and leasing, attracting over 80,000 players from 190 countries. The current MOOV circulating market cap is $501,700.

Walken (WLKN): Innovation in Competitive Characters

Walken allows users to create game characters called CAThletes, who improve their abilities through exercise and participate in competitions. The platform offers sprint, city, marathon, and other competitive modes, with users earning tokens or entering high-risk contests.

The app has over 1 million downloads on Google Play Store. WLKN uses a dual-token architecture (separate governance and reward tokens), with a current circulating market cap of $3.3 million.

Move-to-Earn vs. Play-to-Earn: Two Parallel Tracks

While both M2E and Play-to-Earn (P2E) utilize NFTs and tokens for incentives, their target users and operational logic differ significantly.

P2E games (like Axie Infinity, The Sandbox) revolve around complex tasks in virtual worlds, requiring strategic thinking and long-term commitment, attracting traditional gamers. M2E, on the other hand, turns daily exercise into earning opportunities, with much lower participation barriers—fitness enthusiasts, crypto newcomers, and the general public can all participate.

Economically, P2E relies on continuous content updates and new user influx to maintain momentum, with higher saturation risk; M2E offers more stable and predictable earnings but requires careful management of token inflation.

Constraints and Risks

The Move-to-Earn sector faces several unavoidable issues.

Inflation Pressure: Many projects have unlimited native token supplies, such as STEPN’s GST. When token issuance outpaces demand growth, it can lead to devaluation spirals, weakening real user earnings.

High Entry Costs: Projects requiring NFT purchases create entry barriers. STEPN’s virtual sneaker prices have been high, excluding many potential users.

Scalability Bottlenecks: As user numbers grow, underlying blockchains must support higher transaction throughput. Congestion and high fees could undermine the appeal of real-time reward mechanisms.

Sustainability Dilemma: Many projects’ early profits are driven by new investor inflows, forming pyramid-like structures. When growth stalls, the entire economic system risks collapse.

Future Outlook

Despite challenges, the innovative directions of the Move-to-Earn ecosystem are worth期待。

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) integration can significantly enhance the interactivity and fun of exercise. More refined health tracking features will provide users with deeper self-awareness. Multi-chain deployment and improved tokenomics can diversify systemic risks and strengthen ecosystem resilience.

Move-to-Earn is at a critical transition from validation to maturity. Investors and participants should remain aware of market volatility and token sustainability, while not overlooking the long-term potential of this ecosystem in connecting fitness and finance.