Next Generation Move-to-Earn project SNKRZ closes investment round led by prominent game developer Wemade
Seoul, South Korea , Aug. 05, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — SNKRZ, a Move-to-Earn (M2E) platform developed in South Korea announced on August 4th its partnership with the leading game developer Wemade (known for its successful MMORPG Legend of Mir series in over 170 countries). Wemade became SNKRZ’s biggest investor.
SNKRZ is a M2E fitness platform that allows users to exercise with their NFTs (3D sneakers) and earn rewards in coins. Users are incentivized to reinvest their earned coins back into the platform to repair the shoes, level up, and even breed new NFTs. In addition, users can create a shoebox, change, and customize shoe skins, and sell NFTs in-app and through open marketplaces. The platform offers engaging and entertaining features while also providing health benefits by recording users’ exercise data, including steps count, distance traveled, and calories burned.
Starting with StepN, M2E services such as Sweatcoin and SNKRZ are gaining in popularity, as users find it attractive to earn coin rewards by exercising. This user preference is even more apparent in South Korea where fitness and well-being are at the core of Korean culture and as government lifts social distancing rules. This creates the perfect market conditions for an M2E service like SNKRZ.
What makes SNKRZ unique as an M2E project is its profitability, accessibility, and playability. The project introduces an innovative concept of LAND linked to an actual map. Users can take part in quests and earn rewards by visiting a physical location. On the other hand, users who own LAND can earn coins through user foot traffic. SNKRZ built a unique profitable business model as companies can also buy LAND and hold marketing events for LAND visitors, connecting real-world commerce and foot traffic to the metaverse.
Comparable M2E apps are also notorious for their high barrier to entry, as they require users to upfront hold an NFT (which can trade for more than $1000 at times) as a condition to using their service. SNKRZ on the contrary offers an additional open mode that enables users without sneaker NFTs to use the app and earn rewards after watching a 5-second advertisement. Open mode attracts Web 2.0 users without prior blockchain knowledge, therefore lowering the barrier to entry. Users can rent NFTs as well!
SNKRZ is the world’s first M2E service to be linked to Apple Watch. The app recognizes not only walking and running modes but through its GPS technology, users who enjoy hiking and cycling can also earn various token compensation rates depending on exercise mode, shoe type, level, grade, etc.
SNKRZ also tackles one of the obstacles related to blockchain games, which is accessibility. Players unfamiliar with blockchain technology and its usage find it daunting to jump-start a Web 3.0 service or game. Difficulties range from buying cryptocurrency and NFTs to setting up a wallet address, which deter users from trying out blockchain apps and services.
Ahead of the platform launch, SNKRZ listed sneakers NFTs on Opensea which currently rank 1st on Klaytn chain, based on the last 30 days’ sales volume. Coupled with the organic growth of its online community, these preliminary figures assure that SNKRZ is on its way to becoming a successful NFT project.
With over 20 years of experience as one of top South Korean game developers, Wemade is utilizing its expertise in creating well-made games and applying blockchain technology to increase user benefits and enhance gaming experiences.
Wemade’s game-centric blockchain platform “Wemix” currently houses 15 Play and Earn (P&E) games both developed internally and by third parties; however, the company has big ambitions to turn Wemix into the No1 global open blockchain game platform. Wemade is actively expanding its networks and partnerships with plans to onboard 100 games by the end of 2022.
Wemade’s plan to achieve market dominance focuses on making strategic investments. The company’s partnership with SNKRZ follows a series of successful investments in promising global blockchain projects with proven coin utility and entertainment value. A key element of Wemade’s success is the company’s deep involvement in the development of its projects based on the industry knowledge and blockchain expertise embedded in its human capital. The most recent examples of such investments were in ALTAVA (the luxury fashion metaverse)’s TAVA coin, and CELEBe (the Watch to Earn short-form platform)’s FANC coin.
As part of its big plan to build a mega-ecosystem, Wemade is diversifying its investment portfolio to focus not only on traditional games and implementing blockchain technology to them, but also by onboarding Watch 2 Earn and Move 2 Earn services into Wemix platform. The company plans to sell sneakers and LAND NFTs on NILE’s NFT DAO upon launch in the near future. Wemade will collaborate with SNKRZ to further accelerate its global expansion.
SNKRZ’s management team commented “We are genuinely excited to join the Wemade family, which we believe will help us accelerate our global growth. Our ultimate goal is to make a fun and rewarding health and fitness app for the general population with frictionless onboarding and accessibility. Many Web3 projects use blockchain as their primary focus. We believe it should be the opposite, where the users do not realize they are interacting with blockchain technology”.
Thanks to Wemade’s astonishing investment track record, SNKRZ can count on the game developer not only as a financial investor but also as a strategic partner. The SNKRZ team plans to use the funding to continue building innovative features and create a more sustainable M2E economy. With Wemade on its side, the sky’s the limit to what SNKRZ can achieve!
CONTACT: Wemade amalina@lunapr.io Seoul, South Korea
