OKB has soared more than 300% following a major token burn on Aug. 15.
OKB, the native utility token of the OKX exchange, extended its rally on Thursday, Aug. 21, less than a week after OKX carried out a major token burn on Aug. 15 and introduced strategic upgrades to its blockchain infrastructure.
OKB jumped as much as 70% early Thursday to reach $239, representing a 391% gain over the past two weeks, according to CoinGecko. The token has since retraced to $217, still up 28% on the day and more than 121% over the past week.
The rally, which began around a week ago, comes after OKX’s Aug. 13 announcement that it would permanently burn 65,256,712 OKB tokens, worth roughly $14.2 billion at the time of publishing. The burn represented around three-quarters of its previous circulating supply.
The move is part of a broader overhaul that includes an X Layer network upgrade and a revamp of OKB’s economic model. The burn cut the token’s circulating supply to 21 million, limiting availability and fueling demand in a way that experts say mirrors Bitcoin’s scarcity model. Bitcoin, which is currently trading at $112,600, has a circulating supply that is permanently capped at 21 million.
Moreover, the move positions OKB primarily as the native gas token for X Layer rather than a revenue-sharing exchange coin. X Layer is an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network built by OKX in collaboration with Polygon Labs.
Controversial Move
While the surge reflects heightened demand, David Carvalho, CEO of Naoris Protocol, told The Defiant that such moves can also attract criticism.
Carvalho explained that from a regulatory perspective, dramatic supply changes “may draw scrutiny to market manipulation rules,” especially as international regulators continue to focus on exchange governance standards.
He noted that the move highlights the risks of centralized control in ecosystems that are meant to be decentralized. “The problem here is that when exchanges get to control supply unilaterally (at this level), it becomes the source of a systemic risk, which has nothing to do with markets and dynamics,” he added.
“The thing to remember with token burning is that dropping supply doesn’t just naturally increase the price. In this instance, OKX is burning tokens that the treasury already had or were repurchased previously,” Brian Huang, co-founder of Glider, told The Defiant.
“Today’s move is certainly over-exaggerated. Expect prices to revert somewhat over the next couple of days to weeks,” he added.
OKX has conducted around 28 buy-back-and-burn events since 2019, eliminating 213.7 million tokens. And now, following this recent one-off burn, the exchange has removed roughly 279 million.
The exchange currently boasts total assets of over $28 billion, per DeFiLlama.
