Solana's STEPN hits all-time high as GMT price surges 34,000% in over a month

STEPN (GMT), a so-called “move-to-earn” token that uses the Solana (SOL) blockchain, has seen incredible gains since its listing in March.

The price in GMT jumped from $0.01 on March 9 to an all-time high of $3.45 on April 19 — a 34,000% increase in just 41 days (data from Binance). Its massive uptrend has been largely due to the hype surrounding decentralized finance (DeFi) projects that reward users with tokens for remaining active.

For example, data from CoinGecko shows that the price of GMT and its main competitors, including Genopets (GENE) and dotmoovs (MOOV), has risen sharply on the 24-hour time frame.

What is driving GMT up?

A major clue behind the GMT price increase came from STEPN's recent earnings report. Notably, the project earned more than $26.81 million in the first quarter of 2022 from sales of “royalties” and “NFT sneakers,” according to official figures.

Specifically, purchasing NFT Sneakers allows users to play STEPN, which in turn allows them to earn in-game tokens called Green Satoshi Tokens (GST). Afterwards, traders can exchange their GST rewards for SOL or USDC.

STEPN uses its profits to first buy back its governance token GMT from secondary markets (exchanges, OTC platforms, etc.) and then burns them on-chain, effectively removing them from the 600 million GMT in circulation.

Technical overbought signal

The latest bout of buying in the GMT market has made the coin overbought, according to its 4-hour relative strength index (RSI) reading, which sits above 70 — a sell signal.

Technically, GMT is currently testing the all-time high of $3.14 as a medium-term support level. A break below that level would raise the possibility of a GMT drop to the 50-day exponential moving average (50-day EMA; red wave) around $2.52, which is roughly 20% below the April 19 price.