Australian blockchain-based fitness app Stepn says iOS users can now buy and sell NFTs inside its app, signaling that Apple may have softened its crypto policy
- Stepn users will be able to buy, sell and trade the game's NFT sneakers without having to leave the app.
Context & Ripple Effects
A year ago Stepn was one of crypto's biggest consumer businesses — the Solana move-to-earn app reported 2-3 million monthly users and $3M-5M per day in net trading-fee profit. Then Apple tightened the screws: an October guideline update let iOS apps display NFTs but barred ownership from unlocking features, startups reported stripping functionality rather than pay the 30% in-app-purchase cut (AppleInsider reported NFT startups limiting their iOS apps), and Coinbase said Apple blocked its Wallet release until it disabled sending NFTs. Stepn enabling buy-sell-trade of its sneaker NFTs inside the iOS app is the first clear counter-move in that standoff.
First-order effects
- Stepn's iOS users can now complete sneaker trades without leaving the app, reopening on iOS the trading-fee revenue stream that drove its 2022 peak economics.
- Apple either waived or will collect its 30% commission on these trades — the article itself frames the change as a possible policy softening, so the enforcement posture toward crypto apps has visibly shifted.
Second-order effects
- Other NFT and crypto-wallet developers — including Coinbase, whose Wallet release was previously blocked over NFT sending — have grounds to resubmit full-functionality iOS builds and test whether the softening extends beyond Stepn.
- Rival fitness/move-to-earn apps gain a template for bringing token economies back to iOS, competing with Stepn on platforms where they had been forced to gimp their products.
Third-order effects
- If Apple applies the 30% IAP cut to NFT marketplaces at scale, app-store commissions become a structural tax on secondary crypto markets, shaping which token economies can survive on mobile — while if the softening proves discretionary, developers remain exposed to case-by-case rejection like Coinbase's.
The trend: App Store policy on crypto and NFTs is moving from blanket restriction toward negotiated, case-by-case accommodation — with Apple's 30% cut as the pivot point.