Solana - Tracking GMT into StepN | phu

Introduction

StepN has remained the fastest growing Web3 app in the world, currently picking up tremendous hype for its move-to-earn concept.

GMT is the governance token for StepN that will provide holders with a share of all fees earned within the app. However, recently StepN has made some changes to require using GMT in the game mechanics itself to give it additional utility and incentivize burning of the supply.

Currently, the only way acquire GMT is by trading for it (you can not currently earn it in the game, this will change soon).

Analysis

Scope

1. Track the flow of GMT into the Stepn app

How are users acquiring GMT?
Is by swapping using a DEX like Jupiter, or do flows seem to be coming from centralized exchanges?
How often is GST (the token earned in the game) swapped for GMT?
What other actions are wallets that are sending GMT into the app doing?

2. Track the flow of SOL into the Stepn app

Where do SOL inflows into the app seem to be coming from?
Does it seem like most StepN users were already active within the Solana ecosystem, or is there a lot of activity that originated from inflows from centralized exchanges?
Is StepN onboarding users into Solana?

3. Does the announcement of Coinbase adding StepN to their list of tokens sparked additional interest from sources outside of the Solana ecosystem?

Method

GMT is minted at the Token Generation Event (TGE), with a total of 6,000,000,000 minted on 9th Mar 2022, thus the analysis period of GMT questions is from March 9 2022.
Users can transferred SOL into Stepn app and use it since December 16 2021, thus the analysis period of the other questions is from December 16 2021.
When I refer to table flipside_prod_db.solana.dim_labels to get CEX and DEX label, I noticed that the Binance label has almost no GMT transfer. Then I found the Binance bridge address B1YT25taioVePS81piB5fnJ8inkGfYsQhHsPP1CMCnRS in Stepn's whitepaper and found the authority address of the bridge at this address 2ojv9BAiHUrvsm9gxDe7fJSzbNZSJcxZvf8dqmWGHG8S. Then I check the GMT amount transfer from the address and it is huge, thus I assume this address belongs to Binance. Then I included it in the sources of GMT as Binance.
Airdrops are transfers which have source = HhXAKYmRzBNi7BjkDs2fbwJ49mnpWUtzyXEf8PAMArs4 and authority = STEPNq2UGeGSzCyGVr2nMQAzf8xuejwqebd84wcksCK.

1. Track the flow of GMT into the Stepn app

1.1. Identify transactions which tranferred GMT to Stepn app

Let's see where normal users (not CEXs wallets) are transferring GMT to (also exclude transfers to CEX) to identify the Stepn app address.

Since March 15 until March 17, Airdrop was the only source where users acquired GMT from.
Since March 18 until May 20, CEX was the biggest source of GMT (51% - 99% range), following by DEX.
Since May 21 until now, CEX and DEX have taken turn as the biggest source of GMT.

Next, I breakdown CEX category to see each CEX contribution in total daily GMT from CEX.

In March, Binance was the dominant source (83% - 100% range) with Kucoin and Gate.io following in 2nd and 3rd.
Since early April until now, Binance has maintained the biggest source, following by FTX ,Coinbase, Huobi, Kucoin, Kraken, and Gate.

Next, I breakdown DEX category to see each DEX contribution in total daily GMT from DEX.

In March, similar to CEX, DEX's sources was dominant by one player - Jupiter.
Since beginning of April until now, Orca has flipped Jupiter and become the biggest source with dominance in the 40% - 98% range, following by Jupiter with dominance in the 1% - 39% range, and Raydium (average <1%). On April 12, when Jupiter regained the biggest source for one day.

1.3. How often is GST swapped for GMT?

Since April 4 until now, GST dominance as a GMT source has been in the 8% - 38% range.

Before April 18, GMT only accounted for <0.3% in total GST swap from.
Since April 18 until now, the number has been in the 10% - 58% range, average around 15%.

1.4. Actions which Stepn users do

Since March 9, 63% GMT has been transferred to the top 10 wallets.
In top 10 wallets, there are 2 wallets start with stepn, STEPNq2UGeGSzCyGVr2nMQAzf8xuejwqebd84wcksCK is the authority of the GMT airdrop, and stepnnmTZcdZQ6HDqUVoU6KcYP8kBAHKzyj2jpiiwaH is the treasury address of Stepn.

After going through the Stepn's whitepaper, I came to conclusions:

Stepn users are users who transfer GMT to STEPNq2UGeGSzCyGVr2nMQAzf8xuejwqebd84wcksCK to stake, vote, or burn to use the Stepn app.
GMT transferred to stepnnmTZcdZQ6HDqUVoU6KcYP8kBAHKzyj2jpiiwaH is the tax/fee collected by Stepn.

Let's see how many GMT are being transferred into the Stepn app daily.

Since March 8, of 260k Stepn users, 100k users sell GMT on DEXs, interesting that only 1 user send GMT to CEX.

2. Track the flow of SOL into the Stepn app

At the moment, users can only purchase Stepn sneakers or gems in SOL. And users also need SOL as gas fee to user the Stepn app.

Let's see how many SOL are being transferred into the Stepn app daily.

Daily GMT transferred to Stepn app peaked on April 29 with 14M, then decreased to 2.2M on May 12.
Last 10 days, the number has been in the 2M - 4.6M range.
In the mean time, GMT per user sent to Stepn app decreased from 1200 to 64.

1.2. Sources of GMT transferred to Stepn app

Currently, on Solana, there are 3 sources where users can acquired GMT:

Buy on a CEX then transfer to a Solana wallet,
Swap on a DEX,
Early user of the Stepn app and got airdrop on March 15 (majority) and after (small portion).

Let's see share of these sources in total GMT acquired by Stepn users.

Since December 16 2021 until now, daily SOL transferred to Stepn app increased from 2.3 to >1K in late January, >10K in early February, >100K in late March, peaked at 747K on May 2 2022, and has been in the 500K - 660K range since then.
In the mean time, SOL per user increased from 2.3 to 20 in late February 2022, then has been in the 20 - 26 range until now, which can buy max 2 sneakers at the current price as seen below.

Since December 16 2021 until March 19 2022, CEX was mostly the only source of SOL that transferred into Stepn app. After that, CEX has remained the biggest source while DEX dominance has increased from 2.3% to 19% (peaked on May 1 at 35%).

Next, I breakdown CEX category to see each CEX contribution in total daily SOL from CEX.

Since December 16 2021 until now, Binance has been the biggest source of SOL, following by FTX, Huobi, Gate, Kucoin, Kraken, and Coinbase. Except for some short periods in early, and end of April, mid May when Binance dominance decreased while other CEX increased.

Next, I breakdown DEX category to see each DEX contribution in total daily SOL from DEX.

Since December 16 2021 until February 6 2022, Raydium was the biggest source of SOL with dominance in the 30% - 70% range, following by Jupiter, Orca, and Saber. After that, Orca has replaced Radium to be the biggest source with daily dominance in last 2 months in the 80% - 95% range.

2.2 How old are Stepn users?

Note:

For this question, I also look at the users who use Stepn before GMT minted on March 9 2022
The first GST transaction recorded on December 17 2021
Solana tables only have data from November 28 2021

2.1. Sources of SOL transferred to Stepn app

Similar to GMT, users can acquire SOL from CEX or DEX.

Of all users which have used Stepn since December 17 2021, only 0.6% of them have their first transaction before Stepn launched. The oldest user has the first transaction on December 1 2021 => all Stepn users are Solana new users.
Said another way, Stepn users were not already active within the Solana ecosystem. And for majority of Stepn users, one of their first activities was transferring SOL from CEX (see 2.1) for gas fee and buy NFT on Stepn app, and Stepn is onboarding new users into Solana.

3. Does the announcement of Coinbase adding StepN to their list of tokens sparked additional interest from sources outside of the Solana ecosystem?

On April 28 2022, Coinbase announced the listing of GMT and GST (link).

Let's look at GMT amount and number of users transferring GMT from CEX.

After Coinbase announced listing GMT and GST on April 28 2022,

GMT tranferred from CEX increased 2.6x from 1.03M on April 28 to 2.77M on April 29, then peaked at 4.31M on May 2.
Number of users transferring GMT from CEX increased 1.6x from 2422 on April 28 to 3968 on April 29, then peaked at 5664 on May 2. After that, the number dropped following the market crashed.

=> It looks like Coinbase's announcement of listing GMT and GST sparked additional interest from sources outside of the Solana ecosystem.

Conclusion

GMT flow into Stepn app

3 sources: CEX, DEX, and Airdrop. And CEX is the biggest source.
Since early April, each day, there has been average 25% of GST selling for GMT.
Of all users who transferred GMT to Stepn app, about 40% of them have been selling GMT on DEX, only one has transferred GMT to CEX.

SOL flow into Stepn app

2 sources: CEX, and DEX. Similar to GMT, CEX is also the biggest source.
Most of Stepn users are new Solana users, transferring SOL and GMT from CEX is one of their first activities as it is required to use the Stepn app => Stepn is onboarding new users into Solana.

After Coinbase's announcement of listing Stepn tokens, it looks like that the announcement sparked additional interest from sources outside of Solana ecosystem.

Thanks for reading!