STEP Tokenomics v3.1
The mechanics behind the STEP token
Overview
Step Finance started as a data insights dashboard but its much bigger than that now with multiple brands and projects that Step has started or acquired. Step aims to be the page which Solana users have open all day with all the functions and information they need to make informed decisions.
Each of the projects owned by Step often have different audiences and function as a way to funnel users to the core product (the Dashboard and Analytics) or make money in their own right. All fees earned by Step owned projects go to the fee address and is used to buy STEP on the open market and send to the staking contract.
Today we will discuss the tokenomics behind STEP token.
Principles:
Value accrual to the STEP token is a key focus of all Step projects and products.
Maintain 90%+ coverage of Solana ecosystem in Step Dashboard and Analytics
Step will never ask for your personal data- emails, passwords etc.
No unproductive token emissions (e.g paying for TVL).
xSTEP staking gets its yield from protocol fees only.
Staking (xSTEP):
Anyone can Stake their STEP token and in return they will get an xSTEP token. All fees which the Step protocol earns go to the fee wallet wallet which is used to market buy STEP and send to the xSTEP staking contract which distributes this STEP to stakers. More information on this is available here.
xSTEP Treasury Fee Address
Here is a link to our fee address. PLEASE NOTE THIS ADDRESS WILL ALWAYS TREND TO ZERO AS ALL REVENUE IN THIS ADDRESS IS SENT TO THE xSTEP STAKING CONTRACT OVER TIME
Fees are earned by Step in various activates in all the Step brands and projects
100% of this income is sent to the Treasury Fee address
Coins in this address are used to market buy STEP from the open market
STEP is then sent periodically from the Treasury Fee address to xSTEP contract every 2 days or so
Starting 14 October 2021, this fee address started distributing STEP that has accrued as revenue to stakers in the xSTEP contract.
The xSTEP contract address is: ANYxxG365hutGYaTdtUQG8u2hC4dFX9mFHKuzy9ABQJi
The fee wallet linked above started collecting fees 16 June 2021.
Fee Paying Services on Step Dashboard
Swap page - Total fees for a Swap is 0.15% (and 0.1% with $250 of xSTEP in your wallet).
Settle Balance - 20% referral of the fee on settling an order from the Serum DEX on Step.
Compounding Yield Farms - 0.2% fee on the claimed amount.
Solanafloor (acquired by Step 2022) revenues.
Yield Farm Creation (deprecated) - Requires 10000 xSTEP to create a farm which is locked for farm duration.
Transaction History Exports to CSV subscriptions
Validator Commissions
Step team operates a Solana Validator which is the default staking option on the Step Dashboard. All SOL staked with this validator help decentralise the network and also a fee is charged for the service which is sent to the Treasury Fee address.
The Step Validator stats can be seen here
Reward Options
Users of the Step Swap function are rewarded based on the amount of fees their address has paid over a 5 day period. These users are rewarded with a Call Option on STEP with an OTM Strike.
This is a far more productive method of new emissions to enter circulation as it only happens after a fee to the protocol has been paid, new supply only enters circulation in a bull market, mercenary ‘farm and dump’ LP emissions are avoided and Treasury accrues USDC from exercised Reward Options which is used to set floor pricing on STEP and market buy STEP to be sent to xSTEP stakers.
For a more detailed overview of Reward Options please see the docs here.
Intangibles
Step is one of the most used platforms on Solana with one of the highest monthly active users of any Solana protocol.
This is due to Step’s product offering being very broad- portfolio management is needed regardless of bull markets, bear markets or any specific protocol a user finds themselves in. As long as Step has a lot of eyes on the product daily, a % of these users will use Step as their preferred location to undertake specific fee paying actions. With continued user growth on Defi and Solana, this will increase the number of these users paying fees to the Step protocol which is beneficial to revenue generation for xSTEP stakers.
Future Value Accruals and Utility:
There are many future value accruals and utility features yet to be built on Step. We are always adding more and have planned many more. Some of these include:
Subscription service - Step is moving towards a new product focus on on-chain data and as such will soon be switching to a subscription service. This will be the key driver for protocol revenue going forward.
Stay tuned to our socials and blog for important announcements on this front!
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