Move-to-Earn Gaming 2024: Which M2E Projects Are Actually Worth Your Steps?

The move-to-earn sector promised to revolutionize fitness—turning your daily walks into cryptocurrency profits. But not all projects are created equal, and the landscape has shifted dramatically since the 2021 hype. Here’s what you need to know about today’s M2E opportunities and the projects actually delivering results.

The M2E Reality Check: What’s Happening in 2024

Remember when STEPN was breaking 700,000 monthly active users? The move-to-earn space has matured—and the numbers tell an unforgiving story. By April 2024, STEPN’s monthly active users had plummeted to under 35,000, yet it remains the sector’s largest project by market cap. This paradox reveals the M2E market’s core tension: massive initial adoption followed by brutal retention challenges.

The combined market capitalization of all M2E tokens hovers just under $700 million as of late April 2024, with CoinMarketCap tracking over 30 active projects. But here’s the catch: not all this capital is equally productive. The novelty that once drove adoption has worn thin, and projects are now competing on actual innovation rather than pure fitness gamification.

Understanding M2E: How Your Steps Actually Become Tokens

Move-to-earn games leverage smartphone sensors and wearable devices to authenticate physical activity on blockchain. Your movements get verified and recorded, with earning rates tied directly to intensity and duration. The appeal is straightforward: zero traditional barrier to entry compared to other GameFi models.

The mechanism typically unfolds like this:

Tracking & Verification: GPS and accelerometer data from your phone or fitness device captures activity data. Advanced projects like dotmoovs add AI-driven performance analysis, evaluating movement quality beyond simple step counting.

Token Minting & Rewards: Verified activity triggers token generation. Most projects employ dual-token systems—one for in-game utility (earning rewards), another for governance. This separation theoretically prevents reward inflation from tanking token value.

Monetization Pathways: Earned tokens serve multiple functions: upgrading in-game NFT assets (like virtual sneakers), entering premium competitions, or direct exchange on cryptocurrency markets. Some projects like Sweatcoin allow zero-friction entry; others like STEPN require upfront NFT purchases.

The Project Landscape: Where’s the Real Value?

STEPN (GMT): The Market Leader with Identity Issues

Current Status: Market cap $44.46M | Down 93% from peak

STEPN operates on Solana with a dual-token model (GST for in-game transactions, GMT for governance). The Background Mode feature lets you accumulate steps without actively using the app—a quality-of-life improvement that drove early adoption.

The April 2024 GMT airdrop (100 million tokens) signaled project recovery attempts, but user retention remains the critical unsolved problem. High NFT entry costs ($50-500+ for functional sneakers) created an accessibility ceiling that trapped the project in a whale-dominated ecosystem.

Reality: STEPN proved M2E concept viability but struggled with long-term engagement mechanics.

Sweat Economy (SWEAT): The People’s M2E Platform

Current Status: Market cap $10.59M | Built on NEAR blockchain | 150M+ registered users

Sweat Economy’s genius was lowering barriers to entry—no NFT purchase required, just download and start earning. The platform was downloaded as the #1 health & fitness app in 2022, capturing mainstream fitness users before they’d encountered cryptocurrency.

NEAR’s efficiency meant transaction costs stayed negligible, making micro-transactions economically viable. The controlled minting mechanism gradually reduces token issuance to combat inflation, a critical distinction from unlimited-supply projects.

Reality: Broadest user adoption in M2E, but monetization remains a work-in-progress given massive user-to-market-cap ratio.

Step App (FITFI): The Hidden Contender

Current Status: Market cap $2.33M | 300K+ users across 100+ countries | 1.4B steps tracked

Operating on Avalanche blockchain, Step App employs KCAL reward tokens for activity rewards and FITFI for governance. The dual-token approach creates cleaner separation between earning and platform control.

300K users generating 2.3B KCAL tokens represents more sustainable engagement patterns than STEPN’s velocity. The smaller user base correlates with proportionally higher market cap efficiency.

Reality: Under-the-radar project showing genuine user retention and activity growth.

Genopets (GENE): Combining M2E with Character Progression

Current Status: Market cap $11M | Solana-based | Genesis NFT collection: 146K SOL trading volume

Genopets differentiates through actual gameplay depth. Steps convert to Energy for evolving digital companions (Genopets). This adds narrative purpose beyond simple step-to-token conversion.

The dual token system (GENE for transactions, KI for gameplay rewards) mirrors successful gaming models. NFT tradability adds speculative dimension that simple fitness apps lack.

Reality: Bridges gap between traditional GameFi depth and M2E simplicity.

Dotmoovs (MOOV): AI-Powered Performance Analysis

Current Status: Market cap $493.30K | 80K players across 190 countries | 41K videos analyzed

Dotmoovs inverts the M2E model—instead of rewarding activity volume, it rewards activity quality. AI algorithms evaluate creativity, rhythm, and technique in peer-to-peer sport competitions.

Operating on Polygon, the platform uses ERC-20/BEP-20 standards for cost efficiency. The shift from simple step-counting to performance assessment attracts serious athletes while creating new monetization vectors (NFT tournament entry, equipment purchases).

Reality: Most innovative reward mechanism but smallest market traction.

Walken (WLKN): Gamified Competition Through CAthletes

Current Status: Market cap $3.3M | 1M+ downloads on Google Play Store | Solana-based

Walken wraps M2E in a battle game where steps power character (CAThlete) progression across three athletic disciplines: sprint, urban, marathon. WLKN serves governance; GEMs are activity-based rewards.

The competitive league system creates recurring engagement hooks absent from pure fitness apps. Dual-token system supports differentiated monetization.

Reality: Strong download numbers suggest mainstream gaming appeal, but engagement trajectory unclear.

Rebase GG (IRL Token): Location-Based Physical Challenge

Current Status: Market cap $4M | 20K+ players | Geo-located challenge mechanics

Rebase GG applies move-to-earn to real-world exploration. Geolocation-based tasks create reasons to move beyond simple fitness, blending urban exploration with earning incentives.

The IRL token functions as both reward and in-game currency. Geographic diversification (190 countries) indicates genuine global appeal.

Reality: Novel approach but smallest user base indicates mainstream adoption challenges.

M2E vs. P2E: Why They’re Fundamentally Different Beasts

Play-to-Earn games like Axie Infinity reward virtual achievement in complex digital environments. Success requires strategic thinking, resource management, and continuous engagement. These games create barriers to entry through gameplay complexity and skill requirements.

Move-to-Earn flattens this—your only requirement is existing in physical space. Everyone walks. Not everyone can execute advanced gaming strategies. This democratization is M2E’s greatest strength and its Achilles heel.

P2E risks saturation when new content fails to launch. M2E risks adoption cliff when novelty disappears—which is exactly what happened post-2021.

The Brutal Challenges Nobody Discusses

The Inflation Death Spiral

Projects like STEPN featuring GST with unlimited supply created perverse incentives. As token supply exceeded demand, real earnings plummeted. A player earning $50 daily in 2021 earned $0.50 by 2023. This wasn’t market evolution; it was economic collapse.

Most surviving projects now implement strict minting controls and burn mechanisms, but the damage to M2E credibility remains.

NFT Gatekeeping

Entry costs destroy accessibility. STEPN’s $50-500 sneaker requirement turned “move-to-earn” into “move-if-you’ve-already-invested.” Sweatcoin’s zero-friction approach proved correct—but then faced monetization challenges.

Blockchain Scalability Constraints

Real-time activity tracking generates massive transaction volume. Networks must handle millions of concurrent users performing micro-transactions. Most blockchains struggle here, creating bottlenecks that diminish user experience.

The Sustainability Question

M2E’s economic model depends on continuous new user inflows. Early adopters fund rewards for later joiners. This pyramid structure works until growth stops—then it collapses spectacularly.

User Retention Death

Novelty wears off faster than fitness motivation builds. Users download, earn for 2-3 weeks, then abandon. STEPN’s user cliff from 700K to 35K monthly actives illustrates this viscerally.

Where M2E Goes From Here

The sector’s future depends on three simultaneous breakthroughs:

1. Genuine Innovation Beyond Step-Counting

AI performance analysis (dotmoovs model), social competition mechanics (Walken), and location-based challenges (Rebase GG) prove concept expansion is possible. The winner will combine activity rewards with actual gameplay depth.

2. Sustainable Tokenomics Design

Projects implementing progressive minting schedules, community-controlled burning mechanisms, and multi-stakeholder economic models are surviving longer. NEAR’s Sweat Economy approach (controlled supply adjustment) beats Solana’s STEPN approach (unlimited inflation).

3. Mainstream Fitness Integration

The projects bridging traditional fitness tracking (Fitbit, Apple Watch) with blockchain rewards will capture adoption. Right now, most M2E requires dedicated apps. Integration with existing fitness ecosystems is the untapped opportunity.

Investment Reality Check

For Believers: Step App (FITFI) shows retention patterns worth monitoring. Sweat Economy’s massive user base (150M) eventually compounds into market cap if monetization improves.

For Skeptics: STEPN’s $44.46M market cap still dwarfs smaller projects, despite collapsed usage. Early NFT holders extracted real value before the model broke.

For Developers: The infrastructure exists. Solana and NEAR can handle transaction volume. The barrier is behavioral, not technical—convincing humans to sustain activity-based earning beats building better blockchains.

The Honest Take

Move-to-earn proved people will engage with fitness-based earning systems. But it also proved novelty compounds faster than discipline. The projects surviving 2024 aren’t the ones with the most marketing or the highest peaks—they’re the ones with sustainable mechanics and realistic retention expectations.

Your steps are worth money. Just not as much as the 2021 hype suggested. And that’s actually the healthiest outcome for the sector long-term.