Taking advantage of the bleak environment, LEO overtook others and ranked among the top ten in terms of total market value

The latest data from Coinmarketcap shows that Bitfinex exchange platform coin LEO has successfully entered the top ten of the total market value of cryptocurrencies. In the recent bloodbath in the cryptocurrency market, LEO, which was criticized at the beginning of its birth as more like a stablecoin than a platform coin, has taken the opportunity to overtake multiple mainstream currencies.

On May 20, 2019, Bitfinex exchange platform token was officially launched for trading. LEO was released through IEO, with a total of 1 billion issued to the world. Like most platform tokens, this token has a repurchase and destruction mechanism, and holders can enjoy privileges such as transaction fees, lending fees, withdrawal and recharge fees.

However, as the popularity of the IEO concept was coming to an end, LEO did not rise as fast as other domestic IEO platforms after opening, and the price remained stable at around $1. This performance once made LEO a laughing stock on various social media and communities, but in fact, LEO has indeed maintained this stable currency-like posture for nearly a year.

A report released by Coin Metrics at the end of last year raised more doubts about the prospects of LEO. The report pointed out that the number of addresses holding LEO exceeded 1,500 within 30 trading days before the currency went online. However, in the following four months, this number has not exceeded 2,000.

In addition, the activity of LEO addresses is also quite negative. After the number of active addresses briefly reached about 300 in June last year, it showed a significant decline. In late October last year, the number even dropped below 20. At that time, Coin Metrics pointed out in the report that for a currency with a market value of nearly 1 billion US dollars, the activity of this address was at a very low level.

However, as time goes by, more and more liquidity in the market has participated in LEO's trading activities through platforms such as Bitfinex and Dragonex. The margin trading service provided by Dragonex has effectively stimulated market liquidity. It is precisely this relatively considerable inflow of funds that has enabled LEO to maintain its price in an environment where mainstream cryptocurrencies have collectively collapsed under the influence of Bitcoin's rapid dive in the past period of time.

With the success of BNB and other large exchange platform coins, this special concept has become a relatively independent but very important category in the current mainstream currency group. In addition to LEO, BNB, HT and OKB are all among the top 30 in the cryptocurrency market value rankings published by Coinmarketcap, with BNB ranking 9th, HT ranking 15th, and OKB ranking 29th. The release of platform coins has become an important tool for cryptocurrency exchanges to raise funds and build an ecosystem.

Although there are still voices that platform coins violate the "decentralization" principle emphasized by traditional blockchain assets, for example, a report released by Cointelligence last year pointed out that Bitfinex has inserted smart contracts into the LEO code, giving the exchange absolute control. This means that Bitfinex can increase or decrease the supply of LEO at will, and even delete the LEO held by users in private wallets.

But the fact is that such questioning voices have not affected the "success" of such currencies. Among the currencies at the top of the current market capitalization rankings, we can see many "centralized" stablecoins or exchange platform coins. These assets are "centrally controlled" by some individuals or organizations, which goes against the long-standing support of those "classical cryptographers" for boosting prices. However, this also means that perhaps it is time for us to re-examine the accuracy or comprehensiveness of this view.

Perhaps no one can accurately judge the future of centralized crypto assets such as LEO, or it may just be a special product in the early days of blockchain or cryptocurrency. But for now, these "centralized" tokens will still play a very important role in this emerging market for quite a long time.