OKB surged 180% in a single day due to the burn. Can it still rise after shedding its Platform Token guise?

On August 13, 2025, the price of OKB rose by over 180% in a short period, soaring from about $47 to a peak of $141, setting a new historical high.

This market movement is triggered by OKX's announcement of the destruction of 65 million OKB and the locking of the total supply to 21 million. At the same time, OKX is conducting a technical upgrade on the X Layer chain, significantly optimizing transaction speed and costs, while retiring the old OKTChain and converting OKT tokens to OKB.

Why was OKB burned? Was it because OK had to divest OKB for compliance before its listing? What will the future development of XLayer be like? Does OKB still have upward driving force?

Burning is to shed the platform token's outer layer for compliant listing

OKX announced the destruction of over 65 million OKB, permanently locking the total supply of OKB at 21 million. This move is the most direct reason for the big pump in the token price.

At the same time, OKX announced that the X Layer chain has completed an upgrade called "PP upgrade," integrating the latest Polygon CDK technology, enhancing the network to 5,000 TPS, reducing gas fees to nearly zero, and significantly improving Ethereum compatibility, integrated into OKX Wallet, Exchange, and OKX Pay. In addition, OKTChain will be retired, trading of OKT will stop on August 13, and OKT will be automatically exchanged for OKB at an average price.

This large-scale destruction is not the first token burn for OKB. The destruction mechanism for OKB has been set since its inception. The early destruction mainly relied on the trading fees from the OKX platform, with a certain percentage of profits allocated each quarter to buy back and destroy OKB. In the most recent two quarters, during the 28th round of destruction on June 19, 2025, 42,437,632 OKB were destroyed, and in the 27th round of destruction on March 14, 2025, 31,158,862 OKB were destroyed.

In addition to regular burnings, OKB has also undergone several large-scale burnings in its history. For example, in 2020, OKX announced the destruction of uncirculated OKB, gradually reducing the total circulating supply in the market. These burnings aim to increase the scarcity of OKB, thereby enhancing its value. This time, the destruction of 65 million tokens is the largest in history, directly pushing OKB to a total supply of 21 million, similar to Bitcoin.

The project chooses to actively burn tokens, which is generally to adjust the total circulating supply through burning tokens, thereby controlling inflation and managing market capitalization. However, this time the destruction of OKB is not just for market value management; market value management is only a superficial reason. Many in the industry believe that this large-scale destruction and ecological integration are strategic preparations made by OKX for future listing plans.

For example, the platform token HSK of Hashkey Exchange has now shifted to its public chain token, primarily to seek listing.

Locking the total supply of OKB permanently at 21 million coins and separating it from the operation of the OKX platform is seen as an important step for OKX in terms of compliance. After this series of actions, OKB has transformed from a platform coin to a public chain coin of the X Layer.

Previously, there were reports that OKX was planning to go public in the U.S., which means it must meet strict regulatory requirements. If the platform token is directly tied to the company's operating profits, it will undoubtedly be viewed as a security by U.S. regulators, posing significant obstacles to the IPO.

Through this operation, OKX has positioned OKB as an ecological token, rather than merely a platform equity token, which undoubtedly better meets compliance requirements.

The future of OKB depends on X Layer

The year 2025 is actually the year for OKX to restart its compliance in the United States.

It established its U.S. subsidiary OKX.US and registered as a Money Services Business (MSB), starting legal operations in accordance with federal and state compliance requirements. The headquarters in the U.S. is located in San Jose, California, and Roshan Robert has been appointed as the CEO of OKX U.S. On April 15, 2025, the CEO of OKX U.S. officially announced the launch of the OKX centralized cryptocurrency exchange and OKX Web3 wallet in the U.S., and existing OKCoin customers will seamlessly migrate to the OKX platform.

In terms of compliance measures, it has added KYC verification processes, implemented geographic blocking, and launched an automated review system for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism. Moreover, it continues to seek compliance with licenses and proactively engages with FinCEN, CFTC, and SEC. This series of actions actually signifies that OKX is seeking long-term compliance development in the United States. There are reports that it is working towards listing in the U.S. The separation of OKB from the platform undoubtedly clears another obstacle for its listing.

So, does OKB, as the X Layer ecological token in the future, have potential?

Currently, OKX's upgrade and ecological integration of X Layer indicate that it may serve as a focal point for future development. X Layer, as OKX's self-developed L2 network, has a strong technical foundation. It inherits the high performance and high security of the OKX exchange, and after the upgrade, it has significantly optimized trading speed and fees.

Currently, X Layer can directly utilize the existing traffic of OKX, which may provide a significant advantage for its early development. At the same time, OKX may continue to inject funds and resources into the X Layer ecosystem through investments, incubation, and other means, attracting more high-quality projects to settle in.

OKB may become an important payment and trading medium in the X Layer ecosystem. Users may use OKB for transactions on the X Layer, to pay for DApp service fees, and so on. Of course, OKB may also be used for ecological incentives, governance voting, etc.

However, the competition in the L2 track is fierce, with leading L2s like Arbitrum and Optimism already forming strong ecological barriers. X Layer also needs to continue innovating in order to stand out in the competition. According to data from DeFiLlama, X Layer is currently ranked 122nd among public chains, which is far behind the leading Layer 2s.

Therefore, the future market value of OKB will also depend on how much effort OKX puts into pushing the X Layer to a certain height, and what position OKB holds in this ecosystem.

Currently, OKB indeed resembles a meme driven by sentiment, especially after it is no longer a platform token and has transformed into a public chain token. Although 3/4 of the tokens have been burned, we can no longer price it as a platform token.