Buying and selling sneakers without surprises

The STEPN marketplace is where sneakers, gems, scrolls and shoeboxes change hands between players. You need it on day one, because you cannot earn anything without a sneaker, and most people buy their first pair there. You need it again when you sell a minted shoebox or exit the game. The flip calculator at the top of this page does the fee maths for you. Below, we explain how the marketplace works, which venue to use, how floor prices behave, and what to check before you buy.

Where you can trade STEPN sneakers

There are several doors into the same market, plus a few outside venues. They are not all the same, so it helps to know which one does what.

The in-app marketplace

Inside the STEPN app, the marketplace is the main venue. You browse listings of sneakers and other items, compare them, and buy straight into your Spending account, where they are ready to use. Since December 2022, prices are in GMT ^[source] . If an old guide or screenshot shows a different currency, it is out of date. Pricing in GMT also means that the dollar value of every listing moves with the GMT price, even when nobody changes the listing.

Each realm has its own marketplace. A sneaker in the Solana realm is listed against other Solana sneakers, and a BNB sneaker against BNB sneakers. Realms are separate economies with their own players and their own prices ^[source] . The current realms are Solana, BNB Chain and Polygon; the old Ethereum realm was replaced by Polygon in August 2025. Our realm guide explains the differences.

m.stepn.com in your browser

The same marketplace is available in a web browser at m.stepn.com, listed among STEPN’s official links ^[source] . It is handy if you want a bigger screen for comparing listings and checking details side by side before you commit. Type the address yourself or use the official links page. Fake marketplace sites copy the design, and a fake login page is one of the most common ways people lose their sneakers.

Spark on iOS

On iPhone, STEPN offers Spark, bought through Apple Pay. Spark can only be used to buy sneakers, and it cannot be transferred. That makes it a simple on-ramp if you have never touched crypto: you pay in your local currency, get Spark, and buy a sneaker. The trade-off is that you cannot move Spark out or use it for anything else, so only buy as much as you need.

MOOAR for Genesis auctions

MOOAR is FSL’s separate NFT marketplace, with membership and mandatory royalties. It went live around November 2022 ^[source] . For STEPN players it matters mainly because FSL uses it for special drops and auctions, such as Legendary Genesis sneaker auctions. One January auction topped out at 280,200 GMT ^[source] . That is not where you buy a starter pair; it is a collector venue.

Magic Eden and OpenSea

STEPN lists Magic Eden and OpenSea as external venues for sneakers, and Binance NFT for the ASICS collection. To use them, the sneaker must sit in your Wallet, not in your Spending account. Moving it out is an on-chain transfer that costs gas, and it purges all Mystery Boxes in that realm, which is a nasty surprise if you had boxes waiting. Outside venues also have their own fee rules. Always check the collection address against the official one before you buy there; copycat collections exist.

How to sell well, not just fast

Selling is the mirror image of buying, and most mistakes come from rushing. Before you list, check the current floor for the same type, quality, level and mint count in your realm. Pricing just under the floor sells fastest, but it also pushes the floor down for everyone, including you if you plan to sell a second sneaker. Pricing far above the floor usually means your listing just sits there while your Energy stays lower.

Think about timing too. If you are selling because you want to leave the game, it may be worth using the sneaker’s remaining Energy first and listing afterwards. If you are selling a shoebox from a mint, compare the price of the closed box with the price of opened sneakers of that quality. And whatever you sell, write down the GMT you received and the GMT price on that day. When you later look back at whether STEPN paid off, those notes are worth more than memory.

Fees: 2% platform plus 4% royalty

Every sale on the STEPN marketplace pays a 2% platform fee and a 4% royalty. Together that is 6% of the sale price, taken from what the seller receives. The fee table also lists the 6% that applies to shoe-minting trades.

Six percent sounds small, but it shapes everything. If you buy a sneaker and want to sell it later without a loss, the sell price must be at least the buy price divided by 0.94, which is about 6.4% higher. Add any GST and GMT you spent on leveling or repairs, and the bar goes up again.

On top of the marketplace fee, moving tokens around has its own costs. Transfers between Spending and Wallet cost gas in SOL, BNB or POL. The in-app swap charges 1%. If you plan to cash out after a sale, our guide to selling GST lists the steps and fees on the way out.

What happens to a sneaker when you list it

Listing is not free of side effects. Two rules surprise new sellers.

Energy drops. Your Energy depends on how many sneakers you hold. Listing a sneaker takes it out of that count, so your maximum Energy can fall. If you list a sneaker you were using to reach a higher Energy tier, you will feel it the next day. The Energy guide shows how the tiers work.

HP must be 100%. A sneaker with HP below 100% cannot be listed or transferred ^[source] . Restore HP with GST and Comfort Gems first. New sneakers get a 48-hour HP grace period, but you still need full HP to sell.

Cooldowns matter too. The Help Center lists a 72-hour minting cooldown for newly transferred or minted sneakers and a 24-hour usage cooldown. If you buy a sneaker to mint it, you will wait before you can breed it. Plan around that, especially if the floor is moving fast.

How floor prices work

The floor price is the lowest ask for a given kind of item in a realm, for example the cheapest Common Jogger at level 0 with mint count 0. It is what sellers want, not what buyers have agreed to pay. When ten people list the same sneaker type at once, the floor drops. When nobody lists, it can jump, even though nobody bought anything.

Floors differ by type, quality, level, mint count and realm. A level-5 sneaker usually sits above a level-0 sneaker, because the buyer saves the GST, GMT and time of leveling. A sneaker with mint count 0 tends to sit above one with mint count 6, because it can still breed seven times at the cheapest cost. Attributes matter too: two Commons can have very different base Efficiency.

Floors also follow the token prices. Since everything is priced in GMT, a falling GMT price makes the same GMT floor cheaper in dollars. And because players earn GST, a falling GST price makes sneakers harder to pay back, which pushes demand down. When you read a floor, read it in both GMT and dollars, and compare it with what the sneaker can earn using the GST earning calculator.

Checklist for buying your first pair

Before you buy, run through these points. They save more money than any trading trick.

1. Match the type to your real pace

   Walker 1–6 km/h, Jogger 4–10, Runner 8–20, Trainer 1–20. Spending more than half a session outside the zone earns zero GST.

2. Pick your realm on purpose

   GST is a separate token in each realm, with very different prices. Choose the realm first, then shop its marketplace.

3. Check level, mint count and attributes

   Compare listings with the same quality. Look at base Efficiency for GST and Resilience for lower repair costs.

4. Confirm HP and Durability

   A cheap sneaker with low Durability needs a GST repair before it earns well. Factor that into the price.

5. Remember the cooldown

   A new purchase cannot mint straight away and may have a short usage cooldown.

6. Keep money for upkeep

   Leave some GST for repairs and gas for transfers, so you are not forced to sell at the floor later.

If you are still deciding what to buy, our sneaker guide explains types, qualities and attributes in detail, and the beginner guide covers wallet setup and your first run.

Flipping maths with the calculator

Some players buy sneakers to level them, mint them or simply resell them higher. The flip calculator at the top of the page shows whether that works after fees. Enter what you paid in GMT, what you hope to sell for, and what you spent on upgrades and repairs (converted to GMT).

With the default values, you buy at 300 GMT and sell at 360 GMT with no upgrades. The fee is 6% of 360, which is 21.6 GMT. You receive 338.4 GMT, so profit is 38.4 GMT. Break-even is 300 ÷ 0.94, about 319.1 GMT. In other words, the first 19 GMT of “gain” goes to fees.

Now add 30 GMT worth of leveling and repairs. Profit falls to 8.4 GMT, and break-even rises to about 351 GMT. A 20% price rise has become a tiny margin. This is why many flips that look good on paper end up flat. If you are flipping minted shoeboxes, use the STEPN mint cost tracker for the cost side, then check the sale side here.

The calculator also shows an approximate dollar value of your profit at the live GMT price. Treat that as a snapshot. If GMT moves between your buy and your sale, your dollar result changes even when the GMT numbers stay the same. Our GST vs GMT page explains why GMT is the unit of account and how it relates to the GST you earn.