Health and Fitness App Sweat Economy Raises $13M in Private Token Sale to Move to Web3

Move-to-earn app Sweat Economy raised $13 million in a private token sale led by Electric Capital, Spartan Capital, OKX Blockdream Ventures, Goodwater Capital and GSR Ventures.

The funding will be used to accelerate the app’s move into the Web3 space, and with native token SWEAT, users can begin earning crypto for their daily activity.

“There is a huge amount of opportunity to create the economy of movement by creating this token,” Sweat Economy co-founder Oleg Fomenko told CoinDesk.

Founded in 2015 as Sweatcoin – recently rebranded Sweat Economy – aims to inspire users to improve their health through staying active. In doing so, they earn in-app tokens that can be redeemed for products, services and donations.

After seven years of seeking the transition to Web3, Sweat Economy is teaming with Near Protocol to support the app in its token generation. SWEAT will become the new currency for the app that users can earn through daily movement.

Fomenko said a number of chains were considered, but Near was chosen for its vision on bringing Web3 to the world, its team members and its eco-friendly and speedy transactions.

Move-to-earn games have gained popularity in the past year, despite barriers to entry. Stepn, a popular game that motivates users to run to earn crypto, requires players to purchase non-fungible token (NFT) sneakers to play. According to data from Magic Eden, its current floor price is 1.04 SOL, or $44.

Sweat, however, is completely free to play.

Sweat Economy users – which currently number 35 million – will have the opportunity to create an in-app Near wallet following the token generation event (TGE) scheduled for Sept. 12. Once completed, they can then start earning, with 1,000 steps enough to garner one SWEAT token.

“Our mission is to make the world more physically active,” said Fomenko. “Anything we do with our project is there to bring in more motivation for people to put one foot in front of another.”

For now, users will only be able to hold their SWEAT within the app. The tokens will eventually be able to be taken outside the app and used for saving, staking and purchasing NFTs.

Correction on August 1 at 13:30 UTC: Sweat Economy users changed to 35 million from 5 million.