Flex Coin (FLEX) and Open Exchange Token (OX) have experienced significant surges in value over the past 24 hours, fueled by increased social activity and investor interest in Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, founders of the new crypto exchange OPNX. These sharp price increases are likely the result of higher-than-average buying pressure combined with limited liquidity.
According to data from CoinGecko, on Uniswap, where $3 million worth of OX was traded in the past day, a buy order of just $66,000 worth of ether (ETH) can cause OX prices to move by 2%. However, trading volumes for OX on OPNX were even lower, totaling just $69,000 in the past 24 hours. Similarly, FLEX had a meager cumulative trading volume of $500,000 across centralized and decentralized exchanges.
Interestingly, blockchain data reveals that there are only 1,700 unique wallets holding OX tokens as of Tuesday, despite the tokens having a market capitalization of over $105 million. This figure pales in comparison to projects with similar capitalizations, such as Metis blockchain, which has 17,000 token holders for its METIS tokens, and crypto bridge Synapse, with 7,612 holders of SYN tokens. It’s important to note that these numbers do not include individuals who may have acquired these assets through centralized exchanges.
It is worth mentioning that Su Zhu and Kyle Davies were previously founders of the now-defunct crypto fund, Three Arrows Capital (3AC). The fund collapsed in June last year after significant losses from its substantial investments in Terra (LUNA) and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). The implosion resulted in an estimated loss of $2.5 billion for clients.
Following the demise of 3AC, Zhu and Davies joined forces with the co-founders of CoinFlex to establish OPNX, which they promote as the “world’s first public marketplace for crypto claims trading and derivatives”. However, OPNX has encountered a rocky start, with low trading volumes and a general lack of trust from market participants due to concerns related to the operators’ previous venture.
Overall, the surges in FLEX and OX tokens can be attributed to the growing social activity and investor interest in OPNX’s founders. However, low liquidity and poor trading volumes on OPNX and other exchanges raise questions about the sustainability of these price increases. Additionally, the relatively small number of OX token holders compared to projects with similar market capitalization may pose challenges for long-term growth and adoption.