Sweat Economy, a move-to-earn web3 app, has just raised $13 million in funding. The app is hoping to create what it calls âAn economy of movement.â The funding will help accelerate the realization of this vision.
Fundraise announcement!
We have successfully closed a $13M investment round to fund our launch into Web3. We are delighted to partner with some of the greatest investors in crypto!
Read the press release here:https://t.co/6HtEYbY0rR
— Sweat Đconomy đ§ (@SweatEconomy) July 28, 2022
The M2E app is working to ramp up its web3 presence. It is also teaming up with the Near Protocol to support token generation moving forward.
More Details on the $13 Million Funding
We are learning the $13 million funding for Sweat Economy was largely raised through a private token sale. Also, this is the first major funding round for the app since it relaunched in April. The app attracted some heavy hitters in crypto venture capital.
The funding was led by the Near Foundation, Spartan Capital, Electric Capital, GSR, and others. There were also some notable individual investors including Bjorn Wagner, one of the co-founders of Polkadot, and Sandeep Naiwal, the co-founder of the polygon network.
So far, Sweat Economy intends to use the funding to expand its ecosystem, including transforming it into an integrated sustainable, and safe web3 economy in the coming weeks.
What is Sweat Economy?
Sweat Economy is a move-to-earn app that works quite in the same fashion as STEPN. The app is designed to encourage healthier living by incentivizing users to move. Sweat Economy was established for the first time in 2015 as Sweatcoin, a web 2 health and fitness app for the everyday person.
The app rewards users with ‘Sweatcoins’ every time they move. These coins would then be redeemed for a wide range of products, charitable donations, and even digital services. The project was however rebranded and relaunched in April as Sweat Economy.
The rebrand is designed to reflect the appâs efforts to transition into Web3. The April relaunch has also seen massive success. According to Sweat Economy, over 11 million non-custodial wallets have already been created in anticipation of its web3 app.
The project had also seen a lot of success with its former web 2 app. In fact, before the web3 transition, Sweatcoin had over 100 million users. It was also the most downloaded app in the Health and Fitness category. In Q1, 2022, the value of Sweatcoins redeemed topped $70 million.
Sweat Economy is hoping to leverage its successes in Web2 to build a robust and sustainable move-to-earn economy for the future. In case you would love to learn more about the M2E space, check out our in-depth post.
SWEAT Token: TGE and The Near Protocol Partnership
SWEAT will be the native utility token for the Sweat Economy ecosystem. This means that all rewards will be paid using it. The token will however not replace âSweatcoinsâ which were used in the Web2 app. Both of them will be used together.
Sweat Economy plans to hold its first Token Generation Event (TGE) on September 12. All tokens generated during this event will be NEP-141 standard, meaning they will be based on the Near Protocol. In fact, users who intend to participate in the TGE will be required to create an in-game Near wallet. However, Sweat Economy is planning to add ERC-20 support after the TGE.
SWEAT M2E Rewards: What You Need to Know
Users will start earning rewards for movement as soon as the TGE is done. 1 SWEAT will be equivalent to 1000 verified steps. However, minted SWEAT tokens will have a decreasing rate of inflation. This means that each token will require more steps to mint than the last one.
Sweat Economy is hoping that by 2024, 1000 steps will be equal to just 0.11 SWEAT tokens. There is also a cap as to how much SWEAT you can get for your steps. For now, SWEAT tokens can only be earned up to 5000 steps. Anything above that will be rewarded using Sweatcoins.
How Does Sweat Economy Compare to STEPN?
STEPN is by far the most popular move-to-earn app right now. It is therefore interesting to see how Sweat Economy stacks up. To begin with, the in-game dynamics are markedly different. For starters, STEPN has barriers to entry. Users must first of all purchase an NFT sneaker.
These sneakers have different attributes and features. But most users will spend at least hundreds of dollars to get them. STEPN users must also get an activation code. These codes are not easy to come by but you can check this guide for some pointers. Sweat Economy on the other hand is free to play. You just need to download the app and thatâs it.
Sweat Economyâs reward system is also purely based on movement. In essence, how much you make largely depends on how much you move. While STEPN will also reward users for moving, there is a myriad of factors that affect earning potential.
For example, the type of NFT sneaker you have determines how far they can walk and how much they can earn. There are also âEnergiesâ in STEPN that can significantly limit how much you walk or run in a day.
Finally, Sweat Economy is just an M2E app, at least for now. Moving is the only revenue vertical available for users. But STEPN offers digital assets in the form of NFT-backed sneakers that can be sold for profit in the future.
Move-to-Earn â Enthusiasm Vs. Reality
Move-to-Earn has quite frankly become one of the most popular trends in crypto. Data provided by the STEPN CEO during a Tech Crunch interview showed that the app is averaging between 2-3 million active users per day.
There is obviously a lot of enthusiasm about this idea and thatâs why apps like Sweat Economy and others are transitioning from Web2 to Web3. But M2E also has its critics. Most experts have questioned the sustainability of these projects. And it’s not hard to understand the logic.
You see, running and walking are good and healthy things. But they do not generate economic value. This means that the money you get paid to walk comes from either somewhere else, or someone else. If for some reason the enthusiasm around these projects dies down, it may be much harder to sustain them.
This, however, does not mean you cannot make money from this M2E craze. This study by the Huobi Research Institute estimates that M2E will unlock a lot of value in the future. But the key is to get in early and enjoy the ride. For now, it seems Sweat Economy is offering that opportunity!
