Author: Nancy, PANews

In this round of a clearly differentiated crypto bull market, aside from Bitcoin's solo performance, a few niches like MEME and AI Agent have significantly amplified market enthusiasm due to the wealth effect. However, behind these popular narratives lies a substantial amount of survivor bias stories. In contrast, as the crypto market becomes increasingly mainstream and compliant, crypto projects with practical application scenarios and real value drivers are becoming important targets for investor allocation, such as platform tokens.

Recently, the platform token GT of the established centralized exchange (CEX) Gate.io has repeatedly hit historical highs. This impressive price performance is not only a result of its diversified business model and innovative initiatives but also a reflection of the rapid growth of the exchange.

GT Price Hits New Highs, Multiple Value Empowerment of Platform Tokens

Value has always been a core topic of discussion in the crypto world, largely determining whether a protocol/platform can continuously attract users and capital, thereby forming a strong network effect. The more value captured, the stronger the platform's defensibility.

Exchanges are one of the core players in the crypto financial game, possessing significant value capture potential due to strong cash flow and sustainable business models. As the "face" of the exchange, platform tokens not only serve as a magnifying glass for measuring platform value but also effectively feed back into the platform's operational capabilities, becoming a powerful weapon for enhancing market competitiveness and defensive capabilities.

According to market data from Gate.io, the platform token GT has repeatedly set historical highs in 2024, with a strong annual increase of over 300%, far exceeding mainstream assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. As of the latest data on January 22, GT's price has surpassed $23, setting a new historical high. This strong price trend intuitively demonstrates Gate.io's robust competitiveness in the market.

Gate.io primarily achieves continuous value empowerment through two avenues: first, by enriching application scenarios to enhance the practical use value of the platform token; second, through a buyback and burn mechanism that effectively reduces market circulation, thereby enhancing its scarcity and long-term value.

Specifically, GT has numerous use cases on the Gate.io platform, including trading fee discounts, margin payments, VIP level upgrades, participation in Startup projects, and airdrop rewards. For example, users can use GT to pay trading fees, enjoying discounts of up to 50%, thus reducing trading costs and enhancing investment returns; by holding GT, users can elevate their VIP levels, unlocking more trading privileges and benefits; GT holders can also participate preferentially in high-yield financial products, with over 20,000 participants in GT mining products; users holding GT can vote on platform project launch decisions, among other benefits.

It is worth mentioning that GT holders can also participate in Gate.io's Startup premium project listing activities. According to Gate.io, in 2024, there were 652 exclusive Startup projects launched, with a total airdrop value of nearly $30 million, and the cumulative airdrop amount exceeded $120 million. Compared to 2023, the total airdrop value and the number of participants both saw significant growth, with total airdrop value increasing by 90.95% and participation rising by 474.27%. This growth trend fully confirms the significant increase in demand for GT products on Gate.io.

These diverse application scenarios provide rich user rights for GT holders, greatly stimulating user participation enthusiasm and activity, thereby driving up the market demand for GT and further promoting its continuous value growth.

Moreover, buyback and burn is a conventional weapon for exchanges; this change in supply and demand can directly impact the price of platform tokens and is a reflection of performance strength, although each exchange varies in frequency, execution intensity, and methods. According to data disclosed by Gate.io, as of the third quarter of 2024, the total supply of GT has been reduced from the initial 300 million to approximately 58.06%, with a cumulative destruction of about 170 million tokens, valued at over $340 million.

Additionally, GT, as the native asset of Gate Chain, can be used to pay network transfer fees, PoS staking rewards, ecological governance, and is applied in diverse scenarios such as DeFi, NFTs, infrastructure, and the metaverse. As the Gate Chain ecosystem continues to expand, the increasing use cases and user demand will further enhance GT's practical value.

From Product Innovation to Market Capture, Key "Weapons" for Building Platform Token Value

Future growth potential is also one of the key indicators for assessing the value prospects of platform tokens. According to Gate.io's 2024 annual report, its user base has surpassed 20 million, a year-on-year increase of 234%; total trading volume reached $3.8 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 120%. Behind this rapid growth is Gate.io's diversified strategic layout through product innovation, capturing market trends, asset security, brand building, and traffic expansion, which not only enhances the platform's market competitiveness but also lays a solid foundation for the long-term value growth of the platform token GT.

User-Centric Product Iteration

True demand is the key to product success. It is well-known that the creation of a popular or even blockbuster product hinges on being "user-centric," deeply understanding and meeting user needs to gain user recognition and loyalty, and to carve out a differentiated competitive space. As an established exchange, Gate.io continues to refine and innovate its products in 2024 to meet users' diverse trading needs and provide an efficient trading experience.

In terms of product innovation, Gate Startup optimizes VIP levels, increases airdrop shares, launches new coin mining, and task squares to enhance user participation in quality projects and airdrop opportunities; the quantitative fund launched by Gate.io achieved over 20% annualized returns in its first year, attracting many high-net-worth investors with its innovative low-risk high-return strategy and flexible redemption mechanism; Gate.io's real-time copy trading products and trading robot products have garnered significant user participation; the Gate Earn product line has seen substantial growth due to high returns, multiple products, and excellent user experience, with the daily fund scale of Yubi Treasure surging by 185% and new user growth of 205%; the borrowing function of Gate.io has also seen its cumulative lending volume exceed $3.6 billion by year-end, a 14-fold increase compared to the beginning of the year, after introducing multiple innovative features such as multi-coin staking and Yubi Treasure asset collateral. In terms of trading experience, Gate.io has optimized its trading system, tripling the capacity for spot trading, significantly reducing trading latency, and greatly enhancing user experience; the Gate Web3 task square aggregates information on popular airdrop projects, providing users with a one-stop aggregation activity for quick access to airdrop interaction tasks, distributing $1.6 million in airdrop rewards and attracting over 2.3 million participants.

Timely Capture of Market Trends and Potential Targets

In addition to diversified products, the introduction of new assets is a crucial factor for exchanges to compete for traffic and shape competitiveness. In 2024, Gate.io focused on MEME coins and pioneered an innovative zone, launching over 500 coins and deeply integrating more than 40 on-chain data analysis dimensions to help users quickly capture market hotspots. This product has attracted over 400,000 trading users, with trading volume exceeding $1 billion. Notably, the innovative zone of Gate.io has also generated considerable wealth effects, including the global debut of TRUMP, as well as remarkable surges of up to hundreds of times for popular MEME coins like DOGE, Neiro, and PNUT. To further promote the MEME ecosystem, Gate.io has launched MemeBox, a core hub for MEME information release and trading, the MEME Gateway Grant special fund, and Gate Pilot to accelerate the listing of MEME coins.

At the same time, Gate.io is actively participating in the TON ecosystem construction. In addition to establishing partnerships with ecological projects, it has also launched the Gate Mini App and Gate Wallet Mini App, which currently have over 2.55 million and 1.4 million monthly active users, respectively, showing a continuous growth trend.

These initiatives demonstrate Gate.io's ability to discover quality targets and its keen insight into market hotspots, making it an effective means of acquiring incremental funds and users.

Multi-Faceted Search for Traffic Growth Points

As users increasingly value asset autonomy, and with the rise of inscriptions, MEME, and AI Agent assets, more liquidity is migrating on-chain, making wallets a focal point of competition among exchanges and a traffic entry point for user expansion. The Gate Web3 Wallet now supports over 80 public chains, with total on-chain assets exceeding $27 billion, Swap/DEX trading volume surpassing $32 million, and the number of integrated dApps experiencing exponential growth. Additionally, the Gate Web3 Wallet has attracted a large number of users, with new wallet addresses exceeding 61 million, a staggering 33-fold increase compared to 2023.

Furthermore, given the limited number of crypto-native users, Gate.io emphasizes education and social engagement to capture a larger incremental market. For instance, Gate Live streaming provides users with multi-dimensional, in-depth market analysis, even incorporating AI to offer summarization features, providing users with a more efficient learning method. In 2024, Gate Live streaming gathered over 6,400 top industry analysts and achieved nearly 20 million views; Gate Learn and Gate Research have created a comprehensive learning and research platform for global blockchain enthusiasts, attracting millions of users; the social feature of Gate Dynamics not only increases the stickiness of existing users but also attracts new users, with over 500,000 visitors to date.

Compliance and Security in Tandem

As cryptocurrencies move towards mainstream acceptance, the global regulatory framework is becoming increasingly robust, making compliance an inevitable trend. Gate Entities has made significant compliance progress in various regions worldwide, including successfully submitting a MiCA license application through its Malta entity, acquiring the licensed institution Sheer Markets in Cyprus, purchasing the licensed exchange Coin Master in Japan, obtaining principle approval for the VASP license for Gate Technology FZE in the Middle East market, and registering as a VASP in Argentina, covering multiple business lines such as spot trading, contracts, custody, lending, and fiat channels.

In the risky environment of the crypto dark forest, security remains the core concern for users. Gate.io has continuously optimized the platform's fund security assurance mechanisms, building a solid safety net for users. Since implementing the reserve proof program in 2020, as of the audit data on January 17, 2025, Gate.io's total reserve value has reached $10.328 billion, setting a historical high and ranking fourth globally, with reserve ratios for mainstream cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum at 123.06% and 112.04%, respectively; at the same time, Gate.io's excess reserves have also reached a new historical high, significantly increasing to $2.296 billion.

Multi-Dimensional Brand Building Philosophy

Marketing is not just about product competition; it is also a battle for users' cognitive recognition. In today's era of information explosion, more and more brands are leveraging multi-dimensional and diversified marketing strategies to expand their brand awareness.

Gate.io is also expanding its brand influence through global offline events, sponsorships, and charitable activities. For example, in 2024, Gate.io became the official sleeve sponsor of Inter Milan, with its brand image frequently appearing at the San Siro Stadium, in Serie A matches, and on the UEFA Champions League stage; Gate Charity launched over 60 public welfare projects globally in 2024, providing support in education, healthcare, and environmental protection.

These innovative marketing strategies have opened up broader space for Gate.io's brand development, especially in the internet age, where traffic has become the lifeline of platform development. Through precise customer acquisition conversion and effective user growth strategies, the platform can rapidly enhance its growth and market share.

Platform tokens serve as a direct window for measuring the operational effectiveness of an exchange's value. Gate.io has created more commercial value and appreciation space for itself through diversified product layouts, comprehensive ecological expansion, and strong brand building, which also provides the foundation for the continuous highs of the platform token GT. As the mainstreaming process of cryptocurrencies accelerates, platforms like Gate.io will encounter more construction space and market opportunities, bringing more possibilities and long-term investment potential for the platform token GT.

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