On today's platform coin track, is it still possible to see a tenfold market like in 2021? (Background: OKX platform coin OKB surged to $134, with a short-term increase of over 160%) (Background supplement: OKX exchange rumored to be 'going for an IPO in the US', OKB suddenly surged by 13%) Those who dare to burn money are the ones who have the opportunity to print new money. This afternoon, OKX dropped a heavyweight message in the market: a one-time large-scale destruction of 65.25 million OKB, with a market value calculated at the current price reaching hundreds of millions of dollars. After the announcement, the price of OKB quickly surged, increasing by over 100% in a short time, instantly becoming the focus in a relatively sluggish market environment. Such volatility made many investors feel a sense of déjà vu. The market's association quickly returned to four years ago: in 2021, the sensational 'platform coin destruction war'. At that time, exchanges repurchased and destroyed their own platform coins with real money, not only reducing market circulation and creating scarcity, but also sending signals of profitability and business growth to the outside world. This was an arms race without smoke yet extraordinarily intense: one announcement after another pushed coin prices higher, also reshuffling market capitalization rankings. Now, when OKB again makes a large-scale destruction move, market sentiment and memories are ignited simultaneously. The difference is that the industry environment in 2025 is already not what it used to be: global regulation is stricter, and the competitive model and ecological layout among exchanges have changed significantly. However, this does not prevent us from asking the same question, is it still possible to see a tenfold market like in 2021 on today's platform coin track? Reviewing the 2021 platform coin destruction war, let's turn the timeline back to four years ago. From late 2020 to early 2021, the crypto market welcomed an epic bull market. Bitcoin continued to rise after breaking the $20,000 mark, Ethereum returned to the $1,000 range, driving a comprehensive explosion in altcoins. A large amount of speculative capital first flowed into low-priced, highly volatile altcoins, pushing up short-term gains and rapidly igniting market sentiment. Subsequently, with the realization and return of profits from altcoins, the trading volume and profits of exchanges were significantly boosted. At this time, platform coins met the conditions for 'post-rise': the high profits brought by the bull market enabled exchanges to buy back and destroy tokens on a large scale, reducing circulation and creating scarcity; while the demand for market capitalization management made exchanges willing to use destruction to showcase their strength to the market. Top platforms quickly seized this opportunity, using destruction as a weapon in the competition for brand and investor confidence. A 'destruction show of muscle', catalyzed by the altcoin craze and supported by exchange profits, thus began, with platform coins completing the transition from 'catching up' to 'leading the rise' in the market. In that destruction war, no one wanted to be a silent observer. The frequency, scale, and variety of actions from major exchanges were almost as stimulating as the price curves. To occupy a higher position in the market capitalization rankings, they used different methods to showcase their strength to the market: some launched a fierce attack that shocked the entire venue, some chose to stabilize the pace to build trust, some went directly head-to-head in the secondary market, while others relied on high-frequency presence. Eventually, four distinct camps emerged on the battlefield, each representing a different strategy: BNB, HT, OKB, and FTT. They not only shaped the landscape of platform coins in 2021 but also provided models for later entrants to imitate or even improve. In that smoke-filled destruction war, BNB was the first cannon to fire. In April 2021, Binance destroyed 1,099,888 BNB in one go, amounting to $595 million at the time, directly rearranging the record for the largest single destruction in crypto history. This not only dramatically reduced circulation but also demonstrated to the market what 'the speed of profit realization' looked like. Following this, CZ sent even more aggressive signals: completing the goal of destroying 100 million coins ahead of schedule and introducing an automatic destruction mechanism, making this action sustainable and predictable good news. Such bold moves and steady rhythms allowed BNB to rise from $37 to $690 in that year's bull market, landing in the top three globally by market capitalization. Similar to BNB, HT's rise was not the first wave of leading the rise, but went through the rhythm of 'altcoins rising first, platform coins rising later'. From January to February 2021, capital mainly flowed to hot altcoins, and when this capital returned to exchange profits and platform coins, HT finally welcomed a concentrated explosion. From about $4 in early January 2021 to a peak of nearly $39 in May, the increase was close to 10 times. OKB, on the other hand, chose a more direct route. It eliminated the intermediate repurchase segment and directly bought and destroyed in the secondary market. This strategy was like directly shooting bullets into the price curve, reducing the space for speculators to ambush in advance while also creating significant market impact at the moment of the announcement. In 2021, OKB destroyed nearly 30 million coins in total, with the price soaring from single digits to $40, firmly occupying a position in the second tier. Image source: CCTV interview video. As a newcomer, FTT clearly did not want to lose pace to established competitors. FTX chose to strike frequently—repurchasing and destroying every week, incorporating all trading fees, leveraged token redemption fees, futures funding fees, and other income into the ammunition depot. This sense of rhythm kept it at the center of attention in the 2021 bull market, with prices peaking at $85, second only to BNB and OKB. However, this model highly depended on trading volume, and once the market reversed, the firepower would be exhausted. Sure enough, in 2022, exchanges faced crises, and FTT's story abruptly came to an end, falling from a star to ruins. The firepower of the entire destruction war concentrated in the first four months of 2021. Between January and April, platforms like BNB, OKB, HT, and FTT almost took turns launching record-breaking repurchase and destruction announcements, with single instances often exceeding $100 million, combined with high transaction volumes during the bull market, leading to successive price increases and continuously pushing market sentiment to its peak. Entering July to September, the pace of destruction remained, but the scale was reduced compared to the first half of the year, with announcements more focused on maintaining expectations, and price reactions became more moderate, entering a cooling-off period. By the fourth quarter, as BTC and ETH entered adjustments, trading volumes at exchanges significantly declined, and both the scale and frequency of destruction decreased, making it difficult for news effects to drive platform coins to rise strongly, causing interest to quickly recede. Ultimately, this nearly year-long arms race of destruction not only left steep peaks and valleys on the price curve but also reshaped the landscape of platform coins. BNB, with its dual advantages of firepower and rhythm, sat firmly at the absolute top; OKB, with its stable mechanism and straightforward execution, firmly occupied the second tier; while FTT, although it once shone brightly in the bull market, collapsed in 2022 due to its model's excessive dependence on trading volume and external environments, becoming a cautionary tale in the history of platform coins. The aftershocks of this war continue to this day, providing a sober footnote for later entrants— in the world of platform coins, not only can you burn, but you must also survive long. The platform coins that soared in 2025 often do not rise linearly but rather in a 'stair-step' manner: they may seem calm at times, but once key events occur (large-scale destruction, major product launches, license approval, ecological explosions), prices can sharply rise in a short time, and then build new price hubs at the new level. In multiple past cycles, this 'super explosive' type of platform coin...

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