Original link: https://cn.cointelegraph.com/news/a-long-term-game-of-exchange-ecosystems
Original source: Cointelegraph Chinese
The cryptocurrency market in 2025 showed significant "structural shock" characteristics: Bitcoin maintained high volatility under the support of institutional funds, but small and medium-sized market value assets were generally under pressure, and market liquidity was concentrated on the top assets. In this context, platform coins, as the core value carrier of the exchange ecosystem, have further intensified internal differentiation. According to the latest data in April 2025, the market value of Gate.io's platform coin GT has climbed to the 32nd place in the world's cryptocurrencies, and the quotation has stabilized above US$22, becoming one of the few platform coins that have achieved "counter-cyclical growth". This phenomenon not only reflects the market's reassessment of the ecological value of GT, but also reveals the deep-seated transformation of the exchange's competition logic - from a simple competition for traffic to a competition for the efficiency of capturing ecological value.
Compared with the market performance of mainstream exchange tokens, GT's "low-key rise" is particularly noteworthy. As of April 2025, its circulating market value has surpassed many traditional financial derivative tokens, and among the top 50 cryptocurrencies in the world, GT is the only exchange token that has achieved simultaneous growth in "trading volume, number of users, and destruction volume" for three consecutive quarters. Behind this "resilience against the trend" is the deep synergy between the exchange ecosystem construction and the token economic model.
1. Deep data mining: Where does GT’s excess returns come from?
The value performance of platform coins essentially reflects the comprehensive competitiveness of the exchange. From the data of the increase in the past 180 days, GT's increase of 148.29% far exceeds BNB (3.32%) and OKB (29.17%). This gap reveals three core trends:
Difference in growth momentum: The growth of leading platform coins (such as BNB) tends to be flat due to the high maturity of the ecosystem; while GT, relying on Gate.io's "high-growth ecosystem", is still in an accelerated period of value release.
Comparison of deflation efficiency: As of Q1 2025, the cumulative destruction of GT has reached 177 million (accounting for about 60% of the total), which is much higher than the average annual destruction ratio of most platform coins (usually less than 20%). This "unexpected deflation" directly pushed up the scarcity premium of GT.
User growth dividend: Gate.io's user base has exceeded 22 million (a 234% increase in 2024), and its transaction volume has reached US$3.8 trillion (annual growth of 120%). Its growth rate is significantly higher than the industry average, providing continuous support for GT's demand side.
It is worth noting that GT's market capitalization/trading volume ratio is significantly lower than that of leading platform coins such as BNB, which means that there is still a lot of room for its valuation to be repaired - if Gate.io maintains its current growth momentum, GT's market capitalization benchmarking potential may be further released.
2. Competitive advantages of GT compared to other platform coins: ecological empowerment and strategic depth
In the platform coin track, GT, BNB and OKB present completely different development paths. As the industry leader, BNB's value support mainly comes from the scale effect of Binance's ecosystem; OKB relies on the technical iteration of OKX Chain. GT's strong performance is rooted in the "trinity" value system built by Gate.io: deflation-driven, scenario-penetrating, and strategic foresight.
1. Deflation model: from “passive destruction” to “active value management”
GT adopts a dual-track mechanism of "profit repurchase + targeted destruction":
Rigid deflation: 20% of the platform's net profit in Q1 2025 will be used for GT repurchase and destruction, and the circulation is expected to be reduced by more than 12 million tokens within the year;
Scenario consumption: As the native token of Gate Chain, GT is continuously consumed in scenarios such as DeFi and NFT cross-chain, further reducing the circulation volume.
In comparison, the deflation design of most platform coins relies solely on transaction fee deductions, lacks diversified consumption scenarios, and limits long-term deflation efficiency.
2. Strategic layout: Dual drive of compliance and globalization
The strategic focus of Gate.io in 2025 is clearly:
Compliance: It has obtained the EU MiCA license and the Middle East VASP principle approval, with a reserve ratio of over 128% (ranked third in the world), significantly reducing policy risks;
Globalization: Sponsoring the F1 Red Bull Racing Team, expanding into Latin American and Southeast Asian markets, and achieving a more balanced user distribution;
Product innovation: The contract market share target is increased to 10%, and AI trading assistant and MEME innovation zone are launched.
3. Valuation depression and growth certainty
Gate.io's spot trading volume has ranked among the top three in the world, but its platform currency market value is still only 1/15 of BNB. If Gate.io's contract market share increases from 5% to 10%, GT's market value may have 2-3 times of revaluation space.
GT's deflation rate (about 8% annualized) far exceeds the industry average (2%-3%), and the demand for use brought about by the expansion of the ecosystem has created continuous buying pressure. This mismatch of "reduced supply and increased demand" makes it more defensive in a volatile market.
These measures not only enhance the platform's anti-cyclical capabilities, but also inject long-term growth expectations into GT.
3. Conclusion: The essence of platform currency competition is ecological war
The current competition in the platform coin track has shifted from "traffic scale" to "ecological quality". GT's counter-trend growth confirms the differentiated advantages that Gate.io has built through deep deflation, scenario innovation, and compliance layout. For investors, the value of GT's fixed investment lies not only in short-term gains, but also in its positioning as an "ecological value aggregator" - as Gate.io transforms into a Web3 infrastructure service provider, GT may become the core link connecting transactions, asset management, and on-chain applications.
In the future, the competition among exchange tokens will focus more on the efficiency of capturing real value and global compliance. Although the risk of market volatility always exists, GT's performance in deflation model, ecological expansion and strategic execution has outlined a clear path for value growth.
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