STEPN (GMT) prices were the top trending crypto assets as they surged nearly 16x since its inception. The asset managed to surge from as low as $0.02 to as high as $4.13 within some days. However, the recent market slash fueled by the LUNA-UST crisis dragged the price by more than 80%. Yet, the prices were attempting very hard to stabalize, when the fresh plunge dragged the price by another 40%.
The descending trend is speculated to be fueled by the recent announcement which mentioned the withdrawal of GPS service to the users from Mainland China from July 15. The move is presumed to be in the wake of regulatory compliance within the country.
The tweet says,
“Dear STEPN users:
In order to actively respond to relevant regulatory policies, STEPN will conduct an inventory of software users. If users in mainland China, China are found, STEPN will stop providing GPS to their account at 24:00 on July 15, 2022 (UTC+8) according to the terms of use and IP location services,”
According to Coinglass, the crash caused a mass liquidation of GMT futures trading of nearly $23 million was liquidated in the past 24 hours.
China had previously banned crypto-related activities back in 2021 and recently implied harsh outcomes like jail & fines if found guilty. STEPN on the other hand uses NFTs and hence was able to avoid regulatory scrutiny to some extent. But it does not seem to be possible anymore. However, the STEPN(GMT) prices are trying hard to halt the descending trend, but remain consolidated within the lower regions at the press time.
Source: https://coinpedia.org/altcoin/stepngmt-price-top-the-leader-board-of-losers-today-but-what-went-wrong/