"Move-to-Earn" Game STEPN to Block Users in Mainland China

According to a tweet posted on May 26, a popular non-fungible token (NFT) game STEPN will block users located in mainland China in order to comply with regulatory laws. The game will be “checking and clearing out” all players' accounts located in the country and will stop supporting IP geolocation and GPS services for local compliance concerns on July 15.

STEPN has never “operated any business” or provided any channels for downloads in mainland China. In addition, one of the game's representatives known only by the nickname Jason commented on such an announcement and stated:

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“It’s a very, very urgent tweet and yes, my feeling is we have to follow the regulations, otherwise the ecosystem will not sustain. Feeling really sorry for all the users who had been implicated by this tweet in China mainland.”

STEPN advises all users who are living in mainland China to liquidate all their assets on the platform as soon as possible.

As stated in Friday's announcement, GMT, its in-game cryptocurrency, fell 38% in the past 24 hours. Nevertheless, STEPN temporarily became the most trending topic on the Chinese microblogging website called Weibo.

STEPN is a Web3 running application based on the Solana blockchain with a fun game and social elements where players are able to equip themselves with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the form of sneakers. According to the official website, STEPN “aims to nudge millions toward a healthier lifestyle, combat climate change and connect the public to Web 3.0.”

Back in January, P2E startup STEPN received its first investment estimated at $5 million from some of the largest venture capital firms.

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