The cryptocurrency space has experienced a surge in move-to-earn projects focused on the health and fitness sector. The global fitness app market reached $5.1 billion in 2021 and is projected to grow exponentially at a CAGR of 17.6% from 2022 to 2028. This growth is driven by factors such as increased smartphone and wearable device adoption, rising healthcare costs, and escalating obesity rates worldwide.
The rise of gamification has played a key role in encouraging people to adopt healthier habits. While many struggle to meet recommended physical activity levels, fitness and move-to-earn apps have become essential in motivating individuals to embrace healthier lifestyles.
These move-to-earn games make fitness enjoyable and provide users with opportunities to earn extra income through in-game NFTs, tokens, and blockchain-based rewards. The emergence of play-to-earn and move-to-earn projects has seen substantial growth in the Web3 and gaming industry, with the GameFi market cap reaching $55.38 billion in February 2022. Additionally, the blockchain gaming industry is projected to outpace traditional gaming's growth rate by ten times, reaching $50 billion by 2025.
This analysis focuses on Walken, the pioneering move-to-earn project and the first play-to-earn mobile app that rewards users with $WLKN tokens based on their steps. Beyond promoting a healthy lifestyle, Walken aims to onboard the next billion users to Web3 by offering a user-friendly product that allows people to earn money by simply walking.
Walken and Its Founding Team:
Walken is a free-to-play, walk-to-earn, and win-to-earn mobile app game built on the Solana blockchain. Developed by the GetFit Apps team, a Web2 mobile app, and gaming studio with a remarkable track record of over 60 million downloads in the fitness app sector.
The concept of Walken materialized in late 2021, and the team swiftly released a prototype in early 2022. Within just five weeks of its launch, Walken soared to become one of the Top 6 projects on the Solana blockchain. Over the course of eight months, the app garnered over 1 million users and surpassed the significant milestone of 2.5+ million off-chain users, demonstrating robust global interest despite challenging macroeconomic conditions.
The co-founders of Walken, Alexei Porodzinsky, Alexei Kulevets, and Konstantin Kozlovsky, have an impressive history of collaboration through their ventures, GetFit Apps, and Appyfurious. With a team of 50 in-house professionals, they are dedicated to realizing Walken's vision.
Fundraising, $WLKN Tokenomics & Recent Successes:
In June 2022, Walken successfully closed its funding round, raising $4.7 million in a co-led investment by Infinity Ventures Crypto and Shima Capital, along with other institutional investors like Ghaf Capital Partners and Morningstar Ventures. The project also completed successful public sales (IEOs) on prominent exchanges, including ByBit, Huobi, and Gate.
Walken's in-game economy is powered by its native token, $WLKN, based on the Solana blockchain, with a total supply of 2 billion tokens. The value of $WLKN closely ties to user behavior, with more active players contributing to a higher token price.
Walken operates on its native token, $WLKN, built on the Solana blockchain with a total supply of 2 billion tokens. The $WLKN token plays a crucial role in the in-game economy, ensuring stability while enabling players to earn rewards through gameplay. The token's value is closely tied to user behavior, meaning that increased player activity, such as walking, earning, trading, and purchasing in-game NFTs, leads to a higher price for $WLKN.
Currently, the app boasts 218K unique monthly on-chain users, 553K on-chain users, and a massive user base of over 2.5 million off-chain (free-to-play) users. Impressively, Walken attracted 40K users within the last 24 hours alone. Moreover, the app has been downloaded over 2.5 million times across the App Store and Google Play platforms.
For more detailed information about the $WLKN token sale and allocation strategy, interested parties can refer to Walken's Whitepaper.
Between June and September 2022, the team successfully maintained a sustainable token economy. The project experienced a net token inflow of 107 million, surpassing the token outflow of 79 million, resulting in an overall positive net token inflow of 28% over the four-month period. This achievement can be attributed to the utility of $WLKN within the app. Notably, the in-game marketplace, commissions, NFT breeding, and level-up rewards contributed to the token's positive performance. During the same period, the project recorded an impressive annual revenue of $9.6 million, which included earnings from both $WLKN and $SOL through various revenue streams, such as NFT sales, marketplace fees, and in-app purchases (IAP).
Image Source: Walken
Final Remarks and Roadmap:
In conclusion, Walken has established a strong foundation with a sustainable token economy, a robust tokenomic model, and high demand for $WLKN tokens, leading to a positive net token inflow of 28% over four months. The app's steady growth has resulted in a user base of over 2.5 million engaged off-chain users, indicating growing interest and positive user sentiment.
Looking to the future, Walken's exciting roadmap promises various new features, including Daily Quests, new race modes, tournaments, in-game currency utility, offline events, partnerships, and social features. These initiatives are expected to enhance user engagement and drive further growth in the on-chain user base, solidifying Walken's position as a strong contender and a viable use case in the evolving Web3 landscape.
