On January 24, 2026, OKX unveiled its key strategic layout for the coming years at a strategic release conference: led by founder and CEO Star and the core team, it announced that the public chain X Layer has entered the third phase of construction, focusing on strengthening DeFi and payment capabilities, and launched the OKX Planet Community Public Beta, which integrates information, trading, and social capabilities. All of this is happening in a very unfriendly funding environment—this week, the U.S. Bitcoin ETF recorded a net outflow of approximately $1.32 billion, while Circle experienced a net redemption of $1.4 billion USDC, indicating that traditional finance and compliant dollar funds are withdrawing from certain crypto products. The contradiction becomes apparent: on one side, exchanges continue to increase investment in infrastructure and ecosystems, while on the other side, traditional finance is reducing exposure to crypto. The real question is whether the OKX ecosystem, centered around X Layer and the Planet Community, can become the next recipient in this round of capital and user migration, rather than a passive observer.
The Surface and Undercurrents of ETF Blood Loss and USDC Redemptions
● Timing and Magnitude of Capital Outflow: This week, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs experienced a total net outflow of approximately $1.32 billion, corresponding to traditional financial accounts actively reducing leverage on Bitcoin exposure; at the same time, Circle disclosed on-chain and off-chain data pointing to a net redemption of $1.4 billion USDC in a single week, indicating that compliant dollar vehicles are also contracting. The combination of these two data points reflects not just price volatility, but a concentrated manifestation of capital returning to traditional forms and a reduction in risk appetite.
● Switching Between Asset Classes and Vehicles: On the surface, these funds are “exiting” from crypto-related products, but from a behavioral motivation perspective, it is more likely that they are switching between different risk assets and different custody/compliance frameworks. Some funds are flowing back into traditional currencies and bonds, while others are seeking assets with more certain returns or higher security, rather than simply “leaving the crypto world.”
● Pessimistic Pricing in the Derivatives Market: As off-chain and spot funds are reduced, the short positions of whale accounts on the Hyperliquid platform account for as much as 52.8%, indicating that large participants are more inclined to hedge or amplify downward expectations in the short to medium term. This pricing at the derivatives level further amplifies market concerns about volatility risks in the coming quarters.
● A New Anchor Under Risk Aversion: As macro risk aversion heats up, gold prices have broken through $5,000/ounce, accompanied by a record of $4.17 million in XAUT purchases, indicating that some funds have not “cleared out,” but have switched their anchor from Bitcoin, USDC, and other products to tokenized assets representing gold on-chain. This cross-asset migration is rewriting the relative attractiveness landscape among risk assets.
OKX's Counter-Cyclical Strategy: From X Layer to Planet Community
● Long-Termism and a Decade Perspective: At the January 24 release conference, Star reiterated OKX's commitment to long-term investment within a compliant framework, stating that “the ten-year development of the crypto industry will depend on technological evolution, intergenerational asset replacement, and the maturity of global regulation.” In the context of ETF blood loss and large-scale USDC redemptions, this judgment essentially tells the market: beyond short-term capital cycles, the infrastructure and institutional environment are the key variables that will determine the next decade.
● Role Positioning of X Layer's Third Phase: OKX announced that X Layer has entered the third phase of construction, no longer emphasizing technical scores like TPS, but instead focusing on improving the DeFi ecosystem and payment capabilities. This means that its strategic focus has shifted from “proving performance” to “carrying real assets and trading activities,” attempting to make the chain itself a landing place for capital and application migration, rather than merely a technical showcase platform.
● Product Form and Incentive Boundaries of the Planet Community: The Planet Community Public Beta, which was also unveiled at the conference, integrates information flow, trading entry, and social interaction functions, attempting to connect users' complete path from “viewing information, making decisions to placing trades” within a unified interface. According to public information, the Planet Community has set up incentive mechanisms such as a weekly cash prize pool, but has not disclosed specific amounts or gameplay, and at this stage, it can only be seen as a tool to enhance participation and content activity, rather than a growth engine measured by data.
● Division of Roles Between OKB and X Layer: From an ecological perspective, OKB plays the role of value anchoring and incentive linkage, bearing functions such as fee discounts, participation rights in activities, and ecological incentives; while X Layer is positioned as the carrying layer for applications and assets, providing an operating environment for DeFi, payments, and potential new asset forms. The former is more like a “stakeholder” chip around the OKX ecosystem, while the latter serves as the infrastructure for actual business and capital accumulation. Together, they form the core support point for OKX's counter-cyclical strategy in this round.
Incentives and Hackathons: Long-Term Chips for X Layer
● University Hackathons and Incentive Funds: According to Zakk Wang, head of OKX Wallet, X Layer incentive funds have begun to be used for university hackathons, which is currently information from a single source and needs to be communicated with caution. However, it can be confirmed that OKX is attempting to direct resources towards potential long-term contributors through activities aimed at university developers, rather than just chasing short-term TVL and hot projects.
● Long-Term Value of Developers and Early Projects: For any public chain, university developers and early projects may not immediately drive market cap premiums, but they are often key increments for long-cycle ecosystems. Young developers are more willing to try new paradigms, refine foundational tools, or middle-layer protocols. Such construction is insensitive to short-term prices but determines whether the chain will grow into a truly networked application cluster in three to five years.
● Evolution of Underlying Technology and New Asset Forms: On the same timeline, the Ethereum Foundation has established a quantum cryptography special team, marking that leading organizations in the industry have begun preparing for security and encryption forms for the next decade and beyond. This means that the next generation of on-chain assets may change in signature algorithms, security models, and even asset representation methods, and the ecosystem that can truly accommodate these changes must lay out its developer toolchain and tech stack in advance.
● Leverage Effect of Technology and Talent Dividends: The narrative that extends from this is that in a phase of capital outflow and cooling speculation, those who can master the technical route and talent reserves are laying a greater leverage for the next cycle. By leveraging X Layer incentives and university hackathons to capture developer attention, OKX is essentially betting that when capital flows back in, it will be more willing to chase already formed technical ecosystems rather than just looking at prices and story shells.
OKB and Exchange Public Chains: Restructuring Risk Exposure Beyond the ETF Retreat
● Differences Between Platform Assets and Financial Packaging: Exchange platform assets represented by OKB differ fundamentally from traditional financial packaging products like Bitcoin ETFs in terms of risk exposure and profit distribution. ETFs package Bitcoin price volatility and compliant custody, providing investors with price exposure and potential management fee structures; platform assets are more closely tied to the development of exchange business, fee income, and ecological expansion, with returns and risks directly linked to the platform's operations and innovations, rather than the price trends of a single underlying asset.
● Potential Directions for Funds After Withdrawal: When ETFs and USDC experience concentrated redemptions, investors' next steps may follow three main lines: first, turning to pure on-chain DeFi, seeking a more transparent and native yield structure; second, entering the exchange's self-operated ecosystem, utilizing platform assets, financial management, and activities to enhance liquidity and yield expectations; third, allocating to tokenized products anchored by real-world assets like gold, as evidenced by the large number of XAUT purchases in this round. Behind different paths is a different weighing of custody risks, regulatory frameworks, and liquidity depth.
● Empowering OKB with X Layer and Planet Community: In OKX's narrative, X Layer and the Planet Community provide more usage scenarios and circulation paths for OKB and related assets: X Layer carries DeFi, payments, and potential new asset protocols, while the Planet Community aggregates traffic, information, and trading entry. This combination allows OKB to gradually transition from a simple “platform point” narrative to a positioning closer to “ecological equity sense”—its value comes not only from fee discounts but also from the prosperity of overall ecological activities and asset circulation frequency.
● The Possibility of Exchange Ecosystems as Intermediate Layers: Under the premise of continuous advancement in regulation and compliance, an open question is whether exchange ecosystems can become an intermediate layer connecting traditional financial capital and on-chain native assets. One end connects ETFs, custodians, and compliance reviews, while the other end directs funds to native DeFi and on-chain applications through public chains and community products. If this path proves feasible, then combinations like OKB and X Layer could evolve into a routing system for “traditional funds—on-chain world,” rather than just an extension of a single trading platform.
The Cold Wave of Capital Has Not Retreated: What Does OKX's Long-Termism Bet On
The visible surface is the continuous capital outflow from ETFs and USDC, and the rising short-selling sentiment on platforms like Hyperliquid, but at a deeper level, it is a rebalancing process where global capital reassesses risk-return and the credibility of infrastructure across different asset classes. Price volatility is merely a surface manifestation of this rebalancing; what is truly being re-evaluated is: which asset forms are worth long-term custody, and which infrastructures are safe enough and possess continuous innovation capabilities.
In this context, Star's assertion that “technological evolution, intergenerational asset replacement, and regulatory maturity will determine the next decade” provides an explanatory framework for OKX's current strategy: the third phase of X Layer shifts from scoring to DeFi and payment scenarios, betting on the native on-chainization of assets and trading activities; the Planet Community integrates information, trading, and social aspects, betting on the aggregation of cognition, decision-making, and liquidity. These actions are not tactical adjustments aimed at a specific market cycle, but rather layouts around the industry structure for the next decade.
The real suspense lies in whether, during this cooling period, the third phase of X Layer and the Planet Community can accumulate a sufficient density of developers, users, and applications, rather than stopping at the short-term activity volume and excitement brought by incentives. University hackathons, developer incentives, and community prize pools can generate attention, but whether they can solidify into long-term retention and sustainable ecological depth will determine OKX's leverage multiple in the next cycle.
Looking ahead, a more reasonable judgment is not a price target, but a directional path: if funds partially flow back from financial packaging products like ETFs and single compliant dollar vehicles to on-chain native ecosystems, then exchange public chains and comprehensive community products are likely to become the main battlefield of the new round of competition. One end connects regulation, compliance, and traditional capital, while the other end connects developers, users, and new asset forms. Whoever builds the infrastructure in this intermediate layer in advance will have a better chance of transforming the flood of short-term capital into a reservoir for long-term ecology when the next liquidity surge arrives.
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