Author: zhou, ChainCatcher

Since September, the cryptocurrency market has witnessed a series of brutal harvesting events, from MYX, AIA to COAI, where manipulators and project teams have joined forces to exploit high control and manipulation tactics, sweeping away retail investors' funds. Despite the obvious signs of harvesting, a large number of users in the market are still looking forward to the next "hundredfold coin," fearing they might miss the opportunity to get rich.

Evolution of the "Harvesting Template" from MYX to COAI

This scene began with MYX.Finance, a decentralized derivatives exchange based on the Arbitrum chain. Its token MYX was launched on Binance Alpha in early September, with an initial market cap of about $100 million and relatively flat trading volume. In early September, MYX suddenly ignited and surged, with its market cap quickly climbing to over $3 billion, followed by a high-level consolidation phase, accompanied by intraday "needle-like lifts" and pullbacks, with funding rates turning negative and the top ten addresses holding over 95% of the supply. According to coinglass data, on September 18, MYX rose 298.18% in a single day, with an intraday volatility of up to 317.11%, resulting in short positions being liquidated for $52.0863 million and long positions for $10.5109 million. By early October, the price entered a waterfall-like decline, with brief rebounds but quickly continuing to drop, and MYX has since been on a downward trend, with its market cap currently stabilizing around $500 million.

Following closely, the first wave of follower projects, DeAgentAI (AIA), quickly emerged, attracting market attention with its AI agent narrative. In early October, its price once surged over tenfold, then repeated the MYX playbook, harvesting retail investors through multiple spikes and drops, with a concentration of holdings reaching 97%. If AIA is a lightweight copy of the MYX template, then ChainOpera (COAI) has pushed this model to the extreme.

On September 25, COAI landed on Binance Alpha and the contract platform, with an initial market cap of only $15 million. Within weeks, it surged hundreds of times, with its market cap peaking at over $8 billion, followed by severe price fluctuations between $5 and $25. This dramatic rise and fall, akin to a halving, has made it one of the most eye-catching "meme coins" of the year. Several traders have pointed out that the top ten holders of COAI control 96.5%-97% of the circulating supply, with manipulators inducing retail investors to follow suit through price surges (such as an 81% spike on October 15) and then clearing positions with price drops (such as a 58% halving on October 25), leaving retail investors with little recourse.

It is important to note that newly launched tokens often have high concentration of holdings due to initial issuance being dominated by project teams, institutional investors, or market makers (MM), with the top ten addresses typically holding 30%-60% of the supply. In the case of new coins on Alpha, the top ten addresses usually hold between 50%-80%, with 95% representing an extreme concentration.

From MYX to COAI, the manipulators' tactics have become increasingly sophisticated: first creating hype around hot topics, easily manipulating coin prices with highly concentrated chips and control advantages, and then using contracts to amplify capital effects for high-level exits. If retail investors concentrate on shorting, manipulators can not only earn funding rates but also use the liquidated funds to drive prices up, further consolidating their control.

FOMO Driven "Control is Justice"

Recently, many users on X have been posting images flaunting their short-term trading achievements, with survivor bias masking a large number of liquidation losses, giving rise to an illusion of low expectations and high returns.

The community's attitude has also shifted: from initially criticizing MYX as a "three-no project" (no code maintenance, no buyback promise, no community foundation), questioning the rationality of its rise to a market cap of billions; to now, some investors being swept up by FOMO, gradually accepting that "control is justice," dreaming that the story of getting rich overnight could happen to them.

Crypto investor @huahuayjy stated that the emergence of MYX has epoch-making significance for the crypto space, as it forcefully opened the ceiling for altcoins, making market makers and project teams aware of the potential for huge profits from price manipulation. Subsequent imitators may drive a mini bull market for altcoins. However, opposing views argue that a true altcoin season relies on overall liquidity easing and new capital entering the market, rather than a few projects playing hot potato; some even believe that the MYX model may signal the end of the bull market, making it harder for small projects to break out.

Additionally, KOL sanyi.eth reflected that after losing money shorting MYX, they have actively avoided meme coins. COAI rose from $0.3 to $61 and then retracted to $18. Although this project previously secured about $17 million in funding and received support from Binance Labs, positioning itself in the AI sector, its project foundation is not weak. However, compared to its price and valuation, market sentiment is clearly overheated, and retail investors participating in such volatile coins often end up with liquidations or paying high fees.

As a large number of retail investors still flock to MYX and COAI, it shows that the market's pursuit of fairness has gradually given way to the chase for speculative profits. In other words, as long as there is still a chance to gamble on contracts, many people do not care whether the project team and market makers are behind the scenes manipulating the market.

It is worth mentioning that, according to X user @hellosuoha, at the KBW 2025 conference held in Seoul last month, the trading depth of projects like MYX, AVNT, and IP attracted attention, and the market makers behind them have become key contacts for potential new token projects.

Similar models are being crazily replicated, and more MYX-like projects may emerge in the future. In this ecosystem, retail investors addicted to FOMO will face even denser liquidation lines.

Does Alpha Narrative Amplify Harvesting Effects?

Essentially, the significant volatility of these coins after their launch stems from direct manipulation by manipulators and project teams; on the other hand, the Alpha platform's narrative accelerates retail investor entry, providing manipulators with a broader "hunting ground," evolving into a standardized script that replicates faster and exits more ruthlessly.

This may also reveal one of the design intentions of Binance Alpha: to attract speculators with its low circulation and high volatility characteristics. After all, there are always those willing to pay for volatility—some come for the airdrops, some stay for short-term profits, and ultimately, some pay the price in the volatility.

In addition to high-control coins like MYX, AIA, and COAI, many irregularities have also emerged on the Alpha platform: some projects go to zero or flash crash immediately after launch, and there are also projects involved in false narratives or code plagiarism. Overall, the platform's motivation to attract speculative funds far exceeds that of incubating projects.

From another perspective, the emergence of Alpha is not inherently sinful; it is merely a high-volatility experimental ground focused on early new products. However, when narrative, structure, and human nature overlap, volatility becomes a harvesting machine. According to coinmarketcap data, Binance Alpha has a 24-hour trading volume exceeding $8 billion, far surpassing many small and medium-sized crypto exchanges, indicating that this "barbaric growth" is not coincidental but a product of the interplay between capital and traffic.

Conclusion

On one side, manipulators and project teams are using the high volatility of the Alpha platform to create green exit channels, while on the other side, retail investors remain obsessed with the fantasy of the next "hundredfold coin." Greed and fear intertwine; human nature has always been this way. Rather than blindly chasing the next COAI, it is better to consider what position you hold in this game.

Click to learn about job openings at ChainCatcher

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。