Source: Cointelegraph Chinese

The cryptocurrency market in 2025 will show significant "structural shocks": Bitcoin will maintain high volatility supported by institutional funds, but small and medium-capitalization assets are generally under pressure, and market liquidity is concentrated in top assets. In this context, as the core value carrier of the exchange ecology, the internal differentiation of the track has been further intensified. According to the latest data in April 2025, the market capitalization of Gate.io Coin GT has climbed to the 32nd place in the global cryptocurrency, and the quotation has stabilized above $22, becoming one of the few tokens to achieve "countercyclical growth". This phenomenon not only reflects the market's revaluation of GT's ecological value, but also reveals a deep-seated transformation of the competitive logic of the exchange, from a simple traffic competition to a contest of ecological value capture efficiency.

Comparing the market performance of mainstream platform coins, GT's "low-key climb" is particularly noteworthy. As of April 2025, its circulating market capitalization has surpassed that of many traditional financial derivatives tokens, and among the top 50 cryptocurrencies in the world, GT is the only platform currency that has achieved simultaneous growth in the three indicators of "trading volume, number of users, and burn volume" for three consecutive quarters. Behind this "resilience against the trend" is the deep synergy between the ecological construction of the exchange and the token economic model.

1. Data Digging: Where does GT's excess income come from?

The value performance of the platform token essentially reflects the comprehensive competitiveness of the exchange. Looking at the data of the last 180 days, GT has far outpaced BNB (3.32%) and OKB (29.17%) with a gain of 148.29%, and this gap reveals three core trends:

1. Differences in growth momentum: The growth rate of leading platform currencies (such as BNB) tends to be flat due to the high maturity of the ecosystem; Relying on Gate.io's "high-growth ecosystem", GT is still in an accelerated period of value release.

2. Deflationary efficiency comparison: As of Q1 2025, the cumulative number of GT burned will reach 177 million (accounting for about 60% of the total), which is much higher than the average annual burn ratio of most platform coins (usually less than 20%). This "unexpected deflation" has directly pushed up the scarcity premium of GT.

3. User growth bonus: Gate.io The number of users exceeded 22 million (up 234% in 2024) and the transaction volume reached $3.8 trillion (up 120% year-on-year), which was 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 currencies such as BNB, which means that there is still a lot of room for repair in its valuation - if Gate.io maintains its current growth trend, GT's market capitalization benchmarking potential may be further released.

2. Competitive advantages of GT compared with other platform tokens: ecological empowerment and strategic depth

In the platform currency track, GT presents a completely different development path from BNB and OKB. As an industry leader, BNB's value support mainly stems from the scale effect of the Binance ecosystem; OKB relies on OKX Chain's technology iteration. GT's strong performance is rooted in the "trinity" value system built by Gate.io: deflation-driven, scenario-penetrating, and strategic foresight.

1. Deflationary model: from "passive destruction" to "active value management"

GT adopts the dual-track mechanism of "profit repurchase + directional burning":

· Rigid deflation: 20% of the net profit of the platform in Q1 2025 will be used for GT repurchase and destruction, and the circulation is expected to be reduced by more than 12 million during the year;

· Scene consumption:As the native token of Gate Chain, GT continues to be consumed in DeFi, NFT cross-chain and other scenarios, further reducing the circulation.

In contrast, the deflationary design of most platform tokens only relies on fee deduction, lacking multiple consumption scenarios, and the long-term deflationary efficiency is limited.

2. Strategic layout: two-wheel drive of compliance and globalization

The strategic priorities for Gate.io 2025 are clearly aligned:

· Compliance: It has obtained the EU MiCA license and the VASP approval in principle in the Middle East, and the reserve ratio exceeds 128% (ranking third in the world), significantly reducing policy risks;

· Globalization: Sponsorship of F1 Red Bull Racing and layout in Latin America and Southeast Asia, with a more balanced geographical distribution of users;

· Product innovation: The contract market share target has been increased to 10%, and the AI trading assistant and MEME innovation zone have been launched.

3. Valuation depression and growth certainty

· Gate.io is among the top three in the world in terms of spot trading volume, but its platform currency market capitalization is still only 1/15 of BNB. If the market share of Gate.io contracts increases from 5% to 10%, there may be room for 2-3 times revaluation of GT market capitalization.

· The deflationary rate of GT (about 8% annualized) is much higher than the industry average (2%-3%), and the demand for use brought about by the expansion of the ecosystem has formed continuous buying pressure. This mismatch of "supply and demand" makes it more defensive in volatile markets.

These moves not only strengthen the platform's anti-cyclicality, but also inject long-term growth expectations into GT.

3. Conclusion: The essence of platform currency competition is ecological warfare

At present, the competition in the platform currency track has shifted from "traffic scale" to "ecological quality". GT's growth against the trend confirms Gate.io's differentiated advantages through deep deflation, scenario innovation, and compliance layout. For investors, GT's regular investment value lies not only in the 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 trading, asset management and on-chain applications.

In the future, the competition of platform tokens will focus more on the efficiency of real value capture and global compliance. Although the risk of market volatility is always present, GT's performance in deflationary model, ecosystem expansion and strategy execution has outlined a clear path for value growth.

This article is based on contributions and does not necessarily represent the views of BlockBeats