In the ever-changing cryptocurrency market, each round of bull and bear transitions accelerates a reshuffling of the CEX market, keeping the landscape of this sector in a dynamic state. In this bull market, the CEX sector is evolving from the initial three major players to a more competitive landscape. Gate.io, as a well-established trading platform with over 11 years of history, has navigated through bull and bear markets while maintaining a rapid development momentum, becoming a key player that cannot be ignored at the table.
In fact, focusing on Gate.io's hard power, it is currently one of the best platforms in terms of spot and contract depth, with spot strength second only to Binance, reserves exceeding $10 billion, and excess reserves of $1.8 billion, leading the industry in excess reserves, second only to Binance. Additionally, Gate.io's website traffic ranks in the global TOP 5, making it one of the trading platforms with the best user base.
The popularity of Gate.io among traders is not only due to its legacy as an established platform, excellent trading experience, and high security moat but also because it can continuously bring wealth effects to investors with its platform token GateToken (GT) at its core.
GT: The Ever-Appreciating Golden Shovel
GT is the platform token of Gate.io and also the native token of the GateChain network. With the ongoing expansion of the Gate ecosystem, the GT token has been on a steady upward trend. From the same period last year to now, GT has increased by over 200% this year and has continuously broken previous highs since entering December, consistently ranking among high-quality investment products.
Of course, if you hold GT and participate in Startup mining each period while continuously reinvesting, you will find that, under the gold standard yield of over 200% this year, you will also gain considerable coin-based returns and airdrop rewards. The value growth across multiple dimensions will amplify returns exponentially.
Startup Mining
In fact, it is well-known that Gate.io has the largest number of spot currencies globally and is the fastest platform for listing small coins and seizing hot trends. To allow users to benefit from these newly listed assets, Gate.io launched the Startup feature, which is similar to a Launchpad service. For projects listed in the Startup section, users can participate in new projects at preferential prices or conditions while providing traffic support and early financing for the project parties.
In June of this year, Gate.io launched the Startup mining feature, allowing users to directly stake GT tokens in this section to receive airdrops of the corresponding tokens from projects listed in the Startup section. The airdrop will be allocated based on the amount of GT tokens staked by users. In addition to the airdrop rewards from Startup project tokens, users participating in GT staking will also earn staking interest based on a certain annualized yield.
Thus, Startup mining is essentially a threefold benefit:
- The appreciation of GT itself based on the gold standard
- Airdrops of Startup project tokens
- Staking interest based on GT
From June 12 to December 5, the Startup mining model launched a total of 42 periods. If I staked GT in the Startup mining section during the first period on June 12 (when the price of GT was 8.517 USDT) and exchanged the Startup airdrops received at the end of each mining period back into GT (without putting them into the pool), and compounded the staking interest from each period into the Startup mining pool, this process would continue.
By the end of the last period on December 5, the number of GT tokens exchanged from the Startup airdrops could reach 215.6, while continuous compounding staking would yield a final total of 1.215 GT (with an APY of approximately 49.24%), resulting in a total of 216.8 GT. Based on the price of GT at 12.65 USDT on December 6, the value of the GT tokens we hold would reach 2742.52 USDT.
Initially, we only invested 1 GT (8.517 USDT) and compounded the staking portion of GT. In just half a year, we earned a profit of 2742.52 USDT, achieving a value growth multiplier of about 322 times. If we continue to reinvest the GT exchanged from the Startup airdrops into the Startup mining pool, the aforementioned returns could multiply further.
In fact, looking at the Startup mining product itself, compared to chasing meme coins for unknown income, Startup can provide a more stable and secure long-term income (even surpassing many meme investment returns). After all, GT is backed by the Gate.io platform, which has put significant effort into market capitalization management, benefiting GT holders from multiple dimensions. Compared to some fixed-term financial products, Startup mining is more flexible, allowing for withdrawals at any time without lock-up periods.
Startup mining is attracting more and more users to become GT investors and long-term holders, providing a solid foundation for the accumulation of GT's value. Of course, regarding the GT token itself, with the ongoing expansion of the Gate ecosystem, there is still a strong long-term upward expectation.
The Upward Momentum of GT
For cryptocurrencies, there are typically two ways to drive their price up: one is to continuously enhance their essential demand, increasing market demand and promoting value appreciation; the other is to continuously destroy and reduce market circulation, concentrating value. For the GT token, it has both essential demand and ongoing destruction.
Essential Demand
First, from the perspective of essential demand, the GT token itself is a multifaceted asset, playing a crucial role as a platform token on Gate.io while also being the core ecological asset of the GateChain network.
As Gate.io's platform token, GT has a wide range of application scenarios: it can be used for margin trading, fee deductions (for spot trading, leverage, futures, wealth management, lending, etc.), and to enhance VIP levels (enjoying fee discounts, Startup airdrops, exclusive customer service, and events), with fee discounts of up to 50%. Leveraging Gate.io's deep trading depth and large user base, the demand for holding GT is strong.
In the Startup section, GT holders can enjoy new project subscriptions, exclusive airdrops, token mining, and high-return opportunities. Particularly, the wealth effect of Startup mining is significant, becoming a key driver for the continuous rise of GT, attracting more and more users to hold GT.
As the functional token of GateChain, GT can be used for network payments, on-chain fee burning, and supporting Web3 applications, while also possessing PoS functionality, with on-chain yields as high as 10%, far exceeding ETH's 3%. With the continuous upgrades of GateChain (including trading rollback protection, Layer2 data layer protocols, etc.), the application scenarios and value foundation of GT will continue to expand and deepen.
Destruction
GT itself is also a highly deflationary token, with a total supply of only 300 million tokens. Gate.io repurchases and destroys 15% of its platform revenue each quarter (the higher the platform revenue, the greater the repurchase and destruction effort), which is substantial. To date, over 174.1 million GT have been destroyed, accounting for 58.06% of the total supply, with the circulating supply now below 100 million tokens, making the remaining GT increasingly precious.
On the other hand, the on-chain fees of GateChain will continue to be burned, indicating that as the GateChain ecosystem continues to grow, the destruction rate and deflation of GT will further increase.
Overall, the circulation and destruction mechanisms of GT are similar to those of BNB. From a fundamental perspective, Gate.io has reserves exceeding $10 billion, being the first publicly reserved platform with excess reserves of $1.8 billion, second only to Binance. It has a large number of spot currencies, good depth, and high trading volume, with spot strength second only to BNB, earning it the nickname "Little Binance."
If we estimate GT's price based on platform user numbers and trading volume compared to Binance, a conservative estimate would place GT's price at 1/10 of BNB's, which, assuming BNB is $700, would be $70. Currently, GT is only $13, indicating that GT's price is severely undervalued, making opportunities to see this price increasingly rare, even as we approach 2025.
Why is GT the most worthwhile asset to hold in the platform token sector?
Of course, from the perspective of platform tokens, with so many investment options available, why does GT have the highest investment potential and price appreciation potential? Let's elaborate on a few aspects.
First, in terms of market capitalization, GT's market cap is currently only $1.7 billion, making it one of the smallest platform tokens among major exchanges, while most platform tokens have market caps above $3 billion. The fundamentals and empowerment of Gate.io are not weaker than those of these platforms, and in fact, its layout efforts are even greater, so GT's market cap of $1.7 billion is somewhat low.
From the perspective of scarcity, GT and BNB are the only two platform tokens that are 100% released to users (not considering permanently locked insurance funds) and are long-term deflationary. BNB's total supply is 200 million tokens, and through continuous deflation and repurchase, it has been reduced to about 140 million tokens. GT's deflation mechanism is similar to BNB's, but GT's deflation rate is higher. Currently, GT has been reduced from a total supply of 300 million tokens to 96 million tokens (with quarterly destruction, the destruction rate reaching 58%), and its close binding with Gate.io Startup, continuous destruction and repurchase by Gate.io, and the advancement of GateChain will further accelerate GT's destruction rate. Therefore, when choosing from the platform token sector, both BNB and GT are good investment choices, but GT, with its lower market cap and greater deflationary force, has a more obvious upward advantage.
Compared to other small-cap platform tokens, GT's 100% circulation and transparent records mean it is safer and has no risk of being dumped. Additionally, Gate's more comprehensive and rapid expansion, focusing on emerging global markets, makes GT more dynamic and capable of maintaining upward momentum.
In summary, GT is undoubtedly the most worthwhile asset to hold in the platform token sector.
GT Earnings Review
Finally, let's review the earnings from GT.
If I started holding 1,000 GT on New Year's Day 2024, when GT was $4.7 per token, these GT would be worth $4,700.
If I held until now, based on the gold standard, with the current GT at $13 per token, the profit from just holding would be ( $13 - $4.7 ) * 1000 = $8,300.
If I participated in GT mining and Startup Mining during this period, conservatively calculating at an annualized rate of 12%, I would earn 1000 * 12.8 * 12% = $1,536.
Additionally, if I participated in GT holdings for Startup new token airdrops, conservatively calculating at 16% annually (which is actually much higher), I would earn 1000 * 12.8 * 16% = $2,048.
So, the total net earnings would be: $8,300 + $1,536 + $2,048 = $11,884, and my assets would now be worth $16,584, during which users would not need any complex operations, just staking.
In 2025, Gate.io will continue its expansion and Startup mining, and will continue to replicate the wealth myth of 2024.