Islamic Finance Principles Assessment
Riba - Does GMT Include Any Interest-Based Elements?
GMT does not incorporate interest-bearing mechanisms into its core protocol design, and its revenue and reward structures are not predicated on lending, borrowing at fixed rates, or any instrument that resembles riba in its classical or contemporary definitions. The token's economic model is grounded in activity-based rewards and governance participation rather than the accrual of predetermined returns on capital. For Muslim investors, the absence of structured interest obligations within the protocol itself is a meaningful positive indicator from a riba perspective.
Assessment: Moderate Riba
Score: 64.4/100
Our methodology examines 10 specific criteria to evaluate how well GMT avoids interest-based mechanisms.
STEPN's revenue model is generated primarily through in-app transaction fees, NFT sneaker minting fees, and marketplace commissions on the buying and selling of in-game assets. These are service-based revenues tied to platform activity rather than interest accrued on deposits or loans. The project's treasury, managed by the STEPN Foundation, holds assets including GMT and GST (the secondary in-app token) alongside other digital assets, but there is no public evidence that treasury holdings are placed in interest-bearing instruments or that the protocol engages in riba-generating lending activities as part of its core financial architecture.
GMT staking rewards are variable and tied to ecosystem participation metrics rather than a fixed predetermined rate of return, which is the structural characteristic that distinguishes permissible profit-sharing from riba. Rewards are sourced from platform-generated fees and treasury allocations rather than from interest charged to borrowers. The staking mechanism functions more analogously to a musharakah-style participation in platform revenues than to a fixed-income deposit. Because the return is neither guaranteed nor predetermined, and because it derives from genuine commercial activity within the STEPN ecosystem, the staking structure does not exhibit the defining characteristics of riba.
Gharar - How Much Uncertainty Does GMT Involve?
GMT carries a moderate level of uncertainty, as is common with most blockchain-based assets operating in an evolving regulatory and market environment, but several structural features of the STEPN project meaningfully reduce the degree of gharar present in the token's design. The project's open documentation, exchange-backed launch, and verifiable on-chain activity provide a level of transparency that limits informational asymmetry for participants. The primary sources of residual uncertainty are market volatility, the sustainability of the move-to-earn economic model over time, and evolving regulatory treatment of such tokens globally.
Assessment: Moderate Gharar (Material Uncertainty)
Score: 55.9/100
Our methodology examines 15 specific criteria including team transparency, audit quality, and governance.
STEPN's founding team, led by Yawn Rong and Roby Chang, has been publicly identified and has maintained a visible presence in the blockchain industry, reducing the anonymity risk that contributes to gharar in many crypto projects. The project launched through Binance Launchpad, which requires a degree of due diligence and disclosure that adds a layer of institutional vetting. STEPN's codebase and smart contracts have been made available for review, and the project operates with a publicly accessible whitepaper and ongoing communications through official channels, all of which contribute to a reasonable standard of transparency for participants seeking to make informed decisions.
STEPN's smart contracts have undergone security audits by recognized blockchain security firms, which reduces the technical uncertainty associated with undisclosed code vulnerabilities. The project publishes tokenomics data including total supply figures, allocation breakdowns across team, ecosystem, and public distribution, and vesting schedules for team and investor tokens. Risk disclosures, while not exhaustive by traditional financial standards, are present in the project's documentation. The primary documentation gap lies in the long-term sustainability modeling of the dual-token economy, which has been a subject of community scrutiny, and this economic uncertainty — rather than informational concealment — represents the more substantive gharar consideration for Muslim investors.
Maysir - Does GMT Involve Gambling or Speculation?
GMT is not designed as a gambling instrument, and its core mechanism — rewarding users for completing physical activity — constitutes a form of genuine productive engagement that is structurally distinct from games of chance. The token's value proposition rests on verifiable real-world effort, NFT asset ownership, and governance participation, none of which are maysir by design. As with any tradable digital asset, secondary market speculation exists, but this is a characteristic of the trading environment rather than of the token's own protocol design, and it is not determinative of GMT's permissibility.
Assessment: Moderate Maysir (High Risk)
Score: 63.9/100
Our methodology examines 11 specific criteria to determine if GMT is primarily a gambling instrument or a genuine economic tool.
GMT's foundational utility is rooted in a tangible exchange of value: users expend physical effort, purchase NFT sneakers as productive tools, and receive token rewards proportional to their activity. This structure resembles a service-for-reward model more than a zero-sum game of chance. The NFT sneakers function as capital assets within the ecosystem, subject to wear, repair costs, and leveling mechanics that require ongoing engagement and decision-making. Governance rights attached to GMT further anchor the token to a functional role in protocol stewardship. These characteristics collectively establish that GMT has genuine utility independent of speculative price appreciation.
STEPN achieved significant real-world adoption during its peak growth phase, with hundreds of thousands of active users and measurable on-chain transaction volumes that demonstrated genuine ecosystem engagement beyond speculative trading. However, the move-to-earn model has faced sustainability challenges as token emissions and user growth dynamics created inflationary pressure on the secondary token GST, which in turn affected broader ecosystem sentiment. GMT's value in secondary markets has experienced substantial volatility, and a portion of market participants engage with it primarily as a speculative asset. This speculative trading behavior by third parties does not alter the token's own design or render it impermissible, but Muslim investors should be aware of the distinction between participating in the ecosystem's productive functions and engaging in purely speculative secondary market activity.
