Today's Top 3 Crypto Gainers: STEPN's GMT Continues Rally

Investors get in step with STEPN, pushing the crypto to an all-time high.

The global cryptocurrency market was up slightly today, with market leader Bitcoin (BTC) showing a gain of around 1%. News that a second country -- the Central African Republic -- would adopt Bitcoin as legal tender did little to overcome the general sense of uncertainty. That said, some cryptos are well and truly in the green, including STEPN (GMT), SKALE Network (SKL), and The Graph (GRT).

1. STEPN -- up over 20%

Move-to-earn crypto STEPN is one of the hottest cryptos around right now after a gain of over 2,500% since the start of March. According to CoinMarketCap, its price increased 21% just in the past 24 hours, taking it to a new all-time high of over $4.

The Solana (SOL)-based fitness crypto lets users earn in-game tokens by walking, jogging, or running. Users buy NFT sneakers and the app tracks their activity and pays crypto rewards. As with play-to-earn games, these rewards can be traded for real money. There are two cryptocurrencies in STEPN:

• GMT -- its governance token
• Green Satoshi Token (GST) -- its utility token

Crypto joggers should be aware that there's an unlimited supply of GST tokens. This means that as more tokens get generated, the value of GST could fall. Also, GMT is not listed on major U.S. crypto exchanges such as Gemini or Coinbase. It is available from Binance, KuCoin, Gate.io, and FTX.

2. SKALE Network -- up almost 20%

SKALE is a layer 2 solution for the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. Layer 2s sit on top of the existing blockchain to improve performance. In this case, SKALE helps reduce Ethereum gas fees and minimize network congestion. It isn't clear why SKL is up almost 20% in the past 24 hours, but the most likely reason is speculation around the token's first-ever TwitterSpace session.

3. The Graph -- up over 10%

GRT continues to feature on our daily top gainer lists with an 11.5% gain in 24 hours. One of the challenges in the crypto world is that it isn't easy to search multiple blockchains. By indexing blockchain data, The Graph is positioning itself as a crypto equivalent of Google.

Earlier this month, The Graph Foundation allocated a further $1.25 million in grants, taking the total to nearly $12 million. These awards help strengthen the projects being built on The Graph and encourage the development of new tools. It's also gearing up for a Graph Day followed by a three-day hackathon in June.

Bottom line

Crypto prices have been at best stagnant and at worst trending downward for several months. This type of market makes top gainers like STEPN more appealing. After all, who wouldn't want to see gains of 2,500%? The trouble is that STEPN has already produced incredible gains in a difficult market. We don't know how much speculators have pushed the price up, or how long this rally will continue.

Don't jump in and buy STEPN because you want to make short-term gains from today's headline grabber. Instead, look at how it might perform in the long term, whether its model is sustainable, and how it stands up against the competition. Do your research and think about how any new crypto investment fits with your portfolio and financial situation.

We can draw a valuable parallel between the excitement around STEPN today and the fever that grew around Axie Infinity (AXS) last year. Axie Infinity promised a new type of blockchain gaming. Its play-to-earn model saw people in some countries giving up their jobs to dedicate themselves full time to Axie. Today, Axie is down 75% from its all-time high, in part because its in-game economic model generated so many tokens it watered down the crypto's value.

All cryptos carry risk, especially the latest trending coins. It may not be as extreme as Axie's fall from grace, but after a big price spike, we often see a correction. Rather than chasing short-term gains, try to build a crypto portfolio that will perform well over time.