The standalone crypto app/wallet for the move-to-earn ecosystem - Sweat Wallet - is officially shutting down in December.

That's the bad news.

The good news is, for starters, that while the crypto wallet side of things is sunsetting, the original walking app isn't going anywhere.

Here is everything you need to know about what’s happening, what you need to do before the end of the year, and how your rewards will work moving forward.

Sweatcoin actually tokenized its rewards

Sweatcoin started a long time ago - well before 'move-to-earn' was a Web3 buzzword - simply as a fun, motivating way to get people off the couch by rewarding daily steps with in-app points.

Then came the crypto boom.

When the company eventually decided to tokenize its rewards and launch the SWEAT cryptocurrency alongside the Sweat Wallet app, it onboarded millions of everyday walkers into Web3 overnight.

During that initial hype and rollout, some early adopters and dedicated walkers actually made some good money cashing out their accumulated steps.

Now, that specific chapter is closing.

Because Sweat Wallet is shutting down, you cannot just leave your tokens sitting in the app and hope for the best.

You have to export your Sweat Wallet to another compatible (Near Protocol) crypto wallet before December 31.

Because Sweat Wallet is non-custodial, your assets live on the blockchain, not on the company's servers - meaning you hold the keys.

You will need to grab your seed phrase (your secret recovery phrase) from your Sweat Wallet settings and import it into a third-party wallet that supports the NEAR protocol (such as Meteor Wallet, MyNearWallet, or Sender) before the December 31 cutoff.

Once the app goes dark, accessing your funds without having exported your keys beforehand will be a massive headache, or more likely impossible.

If you never cared much about crypto charts, gas fees, or seed phrases in the first place, this news is actually pretty straightforward for you: Sweatcoin rewards will continue.

The core Sweatcoin app is staying alive.

You can still track your steps, participate in daily bonuses, and earn Sweatcoins just like you always have.

How you’ll cash out moving forward

Without Sweat Wallet acting as a bridge to crypto exchanges, Sweatcoin rewards will mostly be withdrawable directly through the main app using gift cards and/or PayPal, depending on your location.

As for Sweat, as in the token, it'd probably be a good idea to just swap everything for NEAR anyway (if you haven't done that).

The Sweatcoin team said they'll announce what's next after the current model ends, but it kind of sounds like they don't know.

Or that they know the answer will be: nothing.

To be clear, Sweat (as a token) will continue to exist.

But it's hard to see its utility if the native app dies.

Still, if you've been in the crypto world long enough, you know that 99.9 percent of all existing tokens and crypto, including Sweat, should probably be swapped for something concrete the second it hits your wallet.

• Reclaim free SOL by burning spam NFTs and closing empty accounts with Sol Incinerator

• Convert steps into gift cards and cash with Macadam and Sweatcoin

• Faucets are still a thing, this is the one I use with average daily payouts of $0.05-$0.10