Crypto glossary
Move-to-earn
Move-to-earn apps pay users tokens for physical activity such as walking or running, tracked by a phone's GPS and usually requiring an NFT to take part.
Move-to-earn applications turn exercise into a token reward. Users typically buy or rent an NFT, often a virtual pair of sneakers, then walk, jog or run outdoors while the app records distance and speed through GPS. The app pays out a token based on the activity and the NFT's attributes, and users can upgrade, repair or breed NFTs by spending more tokens. STEPN made the model famous in 2022, when its sneakers and tokens briefly reached very high valuations.
The pitch combined fitness motivation with gaming economics and drew millions of users, especially in Asia, during the peak of the play-to-earn trend.
Most move-to-earn economies proved unsustainable. Rewards were paid from new users' purchases and inflationary token emissions, so when growth slowed, token prices and NFT values collapsed and earnings fell to almost nothing. GPS spoofing and bots farming rewards worsened the problem. Surviving apps have shifted toward subscriptions, brand partnerships and smaller rewards.
Example
A user buys a virtual sneaker NFT for 300 dollars, earns tokens worth 20 dollars a day jogging, and months later sees daily rewards worth only cents after the token price falls 95%.