In August 2025, the token of the OKX alternate, known as OKB, went on a historic run. And the token achieved its new peak in 2025, leaping greater than 400% in only one week, breaking $250. However this wasn’t only a random spike. It mirrored a deliberate shift in how the OKX crew is reshaping the token’s mannequin and long-term technique.
Provide Driver: Overhaul of Tokenomics
The OKX crew had constructed OKB, launched in 2018, as a utility token that provided privileges of buying and selling and rewards for customers. The privileges included discounted charges for buying and selling, rewards for staking, and participation in Jumpstart. His preliminary tokenomics mannequin had a most provide cap of 300 million and a buyback-and-burn system that was funded by alternate buying and selling income on a quarterly foundation. This mannequin was a mix of BNBs in its earlier phases, which had a sluggish deflationary impact.
Supply: Coingecko
Within the lead-up to August 2025, the value of OKB hovered within the $40-50 vary, and the buying and selling quantity was $50-80 million, which is a far cry from different alternate tokens like BNB , which averaged $800-1200 million a day, and MX, which was at $15-20 million a day.
For extra: OKX Referral Code 2025: “12554491” ($10,000 USDT SignUp Bonus)
Nevertheless, following the announcement in August 2025, all the things shifted. For the primary time ever, in a single week, OKB’s market cap surged in worth to six billion, surpassing market cap benchmarks thought-about as an achievement alongside main blockchains. The token surged 400%, far surpassing the common efficiency of token alternate.
We’re making a strategic improve to @XLayerOfficial, aiming to construct a number one public chain targeted on DeFi, funds, and RWAs.
Key updates:1️⃣ Underlying tech – PP upgrade2️⃣ Ecosystem growth strategy3️⃣ Deep integration with OKX Pockets, OKX Alternate & OKX Pay4️⃣… pic.twitter.com/OU4EpKtuJz
— OKX (@okx) August 13, 2025
On August 15, 2025, a burn of 65.26 million tokens induced a provide shock that single handedly induced OKX to be without end mounted at 21 million. This was the one largest burn within the historical past of cryptocurrency. There was a radical shift within the worth of OKB. Beforehand, OKB’s worth was tied to the corporate’s income primarily based buybacks and burns. Now, its worth is on the asset’s mounted provide and scarce premium akin to BTC.
Throughout this time, the market was additionally responding positively as the common cryptocurrency token’s value surged 400%, with a complete buying and selling quantity of $80 million per day. There’s a uncommon market matching this sort of liquidity development. The one time it’s comparable is when Binance launched the BNB Chain in 2021.
For extra: OKB Token ATH, Pumps 400% After 65 Million Token Burn Occasion
Demand Driver: The X Layer Improve
In 2023, OKX entered the Ethereum Layer-2 competitors with Polygon by launching an L2 chain primarily based on zkEVM. It makes use of zero-knowledge proofs for cost-effective and scalable transactions with OKB serving because the native token. Initially named OKX’s L2, the chain was rebranded to X Layer in April 2024 and quickly gained infrastructure companions. It contains among the massive names, akin to The Graph, QuickSwap, Curve, and Wormhole. All of those protocols served as the bottom layer of the expansion of the early ecosystem.
As of August 18, 2025, X Layer had recorded 13.06 million transactions with a complete transaction quantity of 1.33 million OKB (roughly $150 million) and 378,000 OKB (round $43 million) bridged to the community. OKX’s Star famous how X Layer’s latest upgrades reset the home windows with 5,000 TPS, near-zero charges, and a provide locked at 21 million on OKB. Star described the chain’s mannequin as “one chain, one token” designed for DeFi, international funds, and real-world property (RWA) supporting the ecosystem.
Contemplating the X Layer nonetheless lags behind its opponents, having solely $6.5M TVL as of August 2025. As compared, different blockchains akin to BNB Chain, Arbitrum, and Polygon held $7.3B, $12.1B, and $5.6B, respectively. X Layer’s day by day transaction quantity continues to be within the a whole bunch of hundreds, a stark distinction to the 5-12 million day by day transactions rival networks are processing.
Protocols on X Layer
A few of these gaps stem from three distinctive challenges:
There are solely seven main protocols dwell and operational for a given area, which creates a restricted DeFi stack compared to different, absolutely operational chains that host dozens of protocols. There’s a spot in conversion for funds; for instance, OKX’s alternate person base of 60 million solely accounts for a fraction of lively, on-chain members. There’s a spot in stablecoin issuance relative to different chains, which leaves Actual World Belongings (RWAs) underdeveloped. For instance, TRON has over $80B in USDT provide and Solana minted $5.5B USDC in only a month.
In abstract, whereas X Layer has the alternate person base and the infrastructure to scale, the gaps in DeFi breadth, funds, and stablecoin in liquidity must be resolved to be at par with the opposite L2 ecosystems.
Desk: Comparability OKTChain and X Layer
Strategic Comparability: OKB and BNB
The technique shift of OKB is similar to the event path of BNB. Each began as alternate utility tokens and later grew to become gasoline tokens of public blockchains. The important thing distinction is tokenomics: BNB continues with quarterly burns tied to Binance income, lowering provide over time however not fixing it completely; OKB instantly adopted a tough cap of 21 million, just like Bitcoin.
Supply: DefiLlama
The numbers make the distinction clear. BNB Chain instructions round $7.3 billion in TVL, processes about 12 million transactions a day, and carries a market cap of $130 billion. As compared, OKB’s ecosystem continues to be tiny—with simply $13.9 million in TVL and just a few hundred thousand day by day transactions. It’s early days for X Layer, however with OKX’s 50 million international customers behind it, there’s at the least a path the place it may attempt to mirror the expansion story that made BNB Chain so dominant.
For extra: BNB Chain Gaming and NFT Ecosystem in 2025
Supply: DefiLlama
Danger Dialogue
Although the market reacted positively, three key dangers stay. The primary one to contemplate is about short-term volatility. RSI indicators for OKB went above 85, exhibiting overbought circumstances. On-chain knowledge from Nansen reported greater than 20 million OKB (~$3.5 billion) deposited to CEXs inside 3 days after the burn — a powerful signal of profit-taking exercise.
In terms of Layer-2 competitors, X Layer continues to be a small participant. Its TVL is simply $13.9 million, a fraction of what rivals like Arbitrum ($12B), Optimism ($6.7B), and Polygon ($5.6B) are holding. Except it will possibly rapidly entice extra dApps and liquidity, holding long-term demand for OKB will probably be an uphill battle.
On the regulatory aspect, OKX is underneath actual stress. The alternate has already confronted a $500 million tremendous within the U.S. and restrictions in a number of main markets. In consequence, it poses an incredible problem to OKX to usher in builders and customers to construct momentum on X Layer.
Conclusion
The latest surge in OKB exhibits what occurs when an enormous provide lower — like an enormous token burn — strains up with a brand new supply of demand from a Layer-2 improve. Collectively, these strikes have utterly reshaped how the market sees OKB. What was once only a utility token for the OKX alternate is now being handled as a scarce asset with actual on-chain use circumstances.
For OKB to carry onto its new standing, the actual take a look at will probably be X Layer’s development. It must scale as much as billions in TVL, usher in thousands and thousands of lively on-chain customers, and present it will possibly navigate powerful regulatory hurdles world wide. With out that, the latest rally could not final. With it, OKB has a shot at turning into a real “second BNB” and holding its worth over the long term.
