STEPN, the most popular fitness-focused Move-to-earn game, shared an official announcement stating that they will block geolocation (GPS) services for users in China mainland starting on July 15.
2/ 如果您預期長期會在該地區的GPS 或 IP位置登陸及使用您的帳戶，我們鼓勵您自行決策處理應用內的資產。在此期間，更多細節將通過官方社交媒體公告、郵件、應用內提示等方式通知使用者。
— STEPN GO (@Stepnofficial) May 26, 2022
Following the announcement, the price of STEPN (GMT) dropped by 5.29% to a low of about $0.83 before bouncing back by 20.67% to trade at $1.05 at the time of writing.
What is STEPN?
After its launch in late 2021, STEPN gained popularity in the world gaining over $20M profit in Q1 of 2022. Currently, the game has over 580K global players, however, it’s not clear how many players are in China.
Since the company will be blocking all the China-based IP addresses, local users have been given up to July 15 to make arrangements themselves for their virtual assets before the change becomes effective.
STEPN uses the GPS concept to track the movement and steps of the players who purchased the virtual NFT sneakers. The virtual NFT sneakers are then converted to in-game utility tokens.
What caused STEPN to block GPS services in mainland China?
The move to block GPS services in mainland China is mainly due to regulatory issues.
Although STEPN did not explain the reason why the team decided to take that stand, their Twitter thread has hinted at regulatory policies compliance.
3/ 我們在STEPN 將一如既往地致力於提供更好的使用者體驗及產品合規性。我們對為您造成的不便表示抱歉並感謝您的理解！STEPN從創建起就沒有在中國大陸地區從事任何業務也並未提供下載管道。STEPN歷來重視合規義務，始終嚴格遵守當地監管機構相關要求。
我們也在此提醒用戶謹防詐騙。STEPN團隊
— STEPN GO (@Stepnofficial) May 26, 2022
The post noted:
“STEPN has always attached great importance to compliance obligations and always strictly abides by the relevant requirements of local regulatory agencies. We also remind users to beware of scams.”
However, the Chinese government is known for its strict policies against digital recording technologies it has not provided and also the fear of foreign surveillance.
Last year, the Chinese government banned the use of Tesla cars by its state officials due to their facial recognition cameras saying that they can be used to spy and gather state information.
Earlier this year, China’s general prosecutor added the level of inspecting non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the Metaverse. Besides, the officials in the country have been warned against financial crimes like illegal fundraising and money laundering carried out through the Metaverse and NFTs. Related crimes will not be tolerated and will attract severe punishment