The last few months have been extremely painful for the cryptoverse. Most coins were already reeling from the bitter crypto winter, and the recent collapse of FTX has only worsened things. However, a handful of crypto assets have risen against the tide and registered handsome returns. One of these coins is OKB, whose price valuation has spiked nearly 50 percent in the last three months. But what is OKB, and why has it almost doubled in valuation over the last 90 days? Tag along to find out.
What is OKB?
OKB is the native cryptocurrency of the popular cryptocurrency exchange OKX. It is an ERC-20 token that serves as the platform’s global utility token. Besides using the token to pay transaction fees, OKB holders can also access multiple benefits and discounts on the OKX platform.
The coin was released after OKX, known as OKEx at the time, completed an initial coin offering (ICO) on July 24, 2017. Initially, a total supply of one billion OKB coins was announced, with 300 million coins launched into circulation. However, it is a deflationary coin, which means that the developers use a quarterly ‘Buy-Back-Burn’ mechanism to ensure that OKB supply is constantly reducing, thus boosting token value and demand in the market.
In September 2020, OKEx burned 700 million OKB tokens after the exchange launched the testnet for OKChain, the proprietary blockchain of the exchange. This reduced the total supply of the token to 300 million.
OKB rallied when most coins suffered during the last three months
For the reasons mentioned above, OKB is quite popular among crypto enthusiasts. In fact, the token projected a continuous growth rate over the past 90 days, even when the market was passing through one of the most depressing bearish phases ever
Source: OKB/USD (CoinMarketCap)
In the past three months, the coin has rallied up to 50 percent, when major coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum took the back seat. This growth has added around $6.87 to its previous selling value of $13.84. The coin enjoyed considerable support from buyers as it was reflected in technical indicators like the Relative Strength Index (RSI) or Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD).
The coin took a minor blow after the FTX collapse. In the last seven days, OKB projected slight bearish patterns as the coin dipped by 2.49 percent. However, experts believe the coin will recover by the following week since investors will use this dip to buy more coins. OKB is predicted to grow by around $1.06 over the coming week.
Reasons behind this growth spurt
The company rebranded its name to OKX in January 2022. The exchange has seen a lot of growth since then. It has also stepped up its sponsorship and expansion drives. For instance, in May this year, McLaren announced OKX as the primary partner of its F1 team. A couple of months later, in July, OKX came on board as the official crypto exchange partner for the soccer giant, Man City FC.
On the expansion front, in July this year, OKX secured approval to serve customers in the United Arab Emirates. The exchange also released plans to set up a regional hub in Dubai, with 100 employees. More recently, on November 4, OKX also registered itself as a digital asset business in the Bahamas and is planning to open an office in Nassau with at least 100 employees.
Also read: Explained: Merged mining and how it works
All this growth and network expansion has positively affected OKX’s native cryptocurrency, OKB. In fact, just the news of the expansion to the Bahamas fueled a 25 percent spike in the token’s price valuation. OKB went from $16.25 on November 3 to $23.88 on November 8.
However, the collapse of FTX caused OKB to momentarily hand back most of its gain, as the token fell to $17.38 by November 14. However, other positive developments before the meltdown have helped the token retrace its steps to $20.60 at the time of writing.
For instance, in the months leading up to the FTX meltdown, OKX listed several trending coins on its platform. For instance, in September, the exchange listed the burgeoning meme coin project, Tamadoge. The following month, it added Aptos, a crypto project developed by former Meta developers, to its list of offerings.
In October, OKX also launched its new block trading feature, allowing institutions and HNIs to place large crypto trades without price slippage and minimal market impact. One month later, OKX announced that its block trade marketplace had already crossed $100 million in trading volume.
OKB’s technical indicators also point toward future price appreciation. For instance, in November, the token recently formed a golden cross after its 30-day moving average crossed its 200-day moving average. The golden cross is generally viewed as a bullish indicator. All these factors have positively affected OKB and given it a good amount of buoyancy.
Conclusion
Crypto analysts and experts have high hopes when it comes to OKB. At the time of writing, the token was changing hands at $20.63, dipping by almost 3.49 percent since the previous day. This is in line with the rest of the crypto market, which is down 1.50 percent over the last 24 hours.
However, based on its utility and rising popularity, OKB is expected to touch $31 by the end of 2022 and $86 by 2025. That said, cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and can fluctuate wildly, despite the even strongest growth indicators. Therefore, you should do your research and invest only as much as you can afford to lose.
