Author: 1912212.eth, Foresight News
On August 22, OKX continued to set historical highs, with its value reaching as high as $258.6, a 24-hour increase of over 30%, achieving three consecutive daily gains, rising over five times from a low of $50 in just 10 days, and even surpassing BTC and ETH in 24-hour spot trading volume at one point. As of now, OKB has a market capitalization of $5.094 billion, ranking 27th.
It is worth mentioning that after yesterday's price surge, the price of OKB on the Ethereum chain once had a 42% premium over the OKX platform.
Burned 52% of circulating supply, fixed at a cap of 21 million.
The announcement on August 13 fundamentally changed the trajectory of OKB. OKX announced the largest token burn in history: burning 65.2567 million OKB, equivalent to 52% of the circulating supply, and permanently fixing the total supply at 21 million. This move directly pushed OKB's scarcity to the extreme, similar to Bitcoin's design of a 21 million cap.
Users holding the Ethereum version of OKB need to recharge their assets to OKX and complete the chain swap through 'withdraw to X Layer.' At the same time, OKTChain will be phased out, stopping trading on OKX from August 13, 2025, 14:10 (UTC+8), and regularly exchanging OKT for an equivalent OKB based on the average closing price from July 13 to August 12, 2025, with on-chain OKT exchanges supporting until January 1, 2026.
After the burn, the price of OKB surged 183% within 24 hours, skyrocketing from around $50 to over $140. On August 21, OKB broke through the $200 mark, reaching a historical peak of $239.91; the next day (August 22), it continued to climb, with its market cap approaching $4 billion. This series of new highs not only refreshed OKB's own records but also spurred short-term rebounds in other exchange tokens like BNB.
In the face of the price surge, OKX CEO Star even personally stepped in to remind everyone: trading involves risks, and investment should be cautious to avoid blindly following trends.
The cryptocurrency exchange OKX was founded by Star Xu. Currently, OKX's ecosystem includes a Web3 wallet, Layer 2 network X Layer, and a series of DeFi and GameFi applications, all of which provide solid value support for its token OKB.
OKB was originally issued as the platform token for OKX in 2018, with an initial total supply of 300 million. It is not only a tool for trading fee discounts, but also used for ecological governance, staking rewards, and cross-chain bridging. After OKX launched its L2 network in collaboration with Polygon in 2023, OKB became the native currency on the chain.
According to historical data from OKX, OKB was restricted by early market fluctuations and regulatory uncertainties, with a minimum price of only $0.57 in 2019. With the arrival of the crypto bull market, OKB once soared to $44 in 2021, but the bear market of 2022 dragged it down to below $10. By 2025, OKB oscillated around $50 until positive news about its burn was announced, starting its journey to rise.
Set to go public in the U.S.
In June of this year, OKX was reported to be planning an IPO in the U.S. next year.
From a financial perspective, the IPO will provide OKX with a substantial capital influx for technology upgrades, marketing, and global expansion. After a successful listing, OKX can optimize its balance sheet through equity financing and enhance its parent company's valuation, which is crucial for attracting institutional investors. Furthermore, the listing will also bring legitimacy to its platform token OKB, potentially driving its price further up.
However, viewing the IPO simply as a financial maneuver may underestimate its strategic intent. OKX's return to the U.S. market and consideration for an IPO is more about its long-term plan to enter the U.S. market. The U.S. is the world's largest cryptocurrency market, with a vast user base and institutional capital. By going public, OKX can not only enhance brand awareness but also compete directly with rivals like Coinbase and Kraken.
Both of the latter are also intensifying their layouts on L2. Coinbase's launched L2 has become one of the most active layer two networks, and Kraken is also accelerating the launch of its superchain ink.
The underlying reason is the shift in thinking from centralized to decentralized.
The first is diversifying income and profit models. Traditional CEX relies on trading fees, but L2 provides new sources of income. Coinbase, as the sole sequencer for Base, can capture significant trading fees to boost revenue. L2 helps exchanges shift from custody fees and stablecoin interest to on-chain fees and NFT minting (e.g., Coinbase's Onchain Summer event generated $500 million in assets), addressing the volatility of the bear market. Coinbase's latest financial report shows that due to a sharp drop in DA costs and a surge in user numbers, after excluding $6.34 million in DA costs, Base network achieved a gross profit in March that was twice that of Arbitrum's entire quarter gross profit.
The second is to strengthen ecosystem development, guiding users from centralized platforms to self-custody and DeFi, expanding market reach and attracting developers to build dApps, forming a closed-loop ecosystem. By lowering the barrier to entry through L2 (like zero gas fee experiences), accelerating crypto adoption, especially under the U.S. regulatory environment, and providing compliant pathways to avoid SEC crackdowns.
In August this year, OKX made a significant upgrade to its Layer 2 network, X Layer, integrating Polygon's Chain Development Kit (CDK), boosting transaction speeds to 5000 TPS (transactions per second) and achieving near-zero gas fees. This upgrade made X Layer an efficient Web3 infrastructure, attracting more DeFi projects and developers. OKB, as the network's fuel token, directly benefits from ecological expansion.
As of now, according to official data from X Layer, the total number of addresses has exceeded 2.18 million, with 47,000 new addresses added in the last 24 hours. The number of addresses holding OKB exceeds 786,000, with 3,387 new addresses added in the last 24 hours. Its ecosystem includes launch platforms like DYORSWAP, and its on-chain meme coin XDOG once had a market cap exceeding $10 million.
Overall, the surge of OKB reflects the expectations of cryptocurrency market investors for the subsequent developments of X Layer and the optimism surrounding OKX's U.S. listing. In this rapidly evolving market, the story of OKB may just be the prelude to a larger wave.
