3AC-Linked FLEX, OX Tokens Surge Despite Lack of New Holders

Flex Coin (FLEX) and Open Exchange Token (OX), two tokens linked to the new crypto exchange OPNX, surged as much as 35% in the past 24 hours amid rising social activity and interest from investors betting on Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, two of the exchange’s founders.

As such, the sharp price moves were likely a result of above-average buying pressure amid relatively low liquidity. CoinGecko data shows that on Uniswap - where $3 million worth of OX were traded in the past 24 hours - a buy order of just $66,000 worth of ether (ETH) can move OX prices by 2%.

Trading volumes for OX on OPNX were even lower: Just $69,000 in the past 24 hours. Elsewhere, FLEX saw an even meager $500,000 in cumulative trading volumes across centralized and decentralized exchanges.

Meanwhile, blockchain data for OX tokens show the number of unique wallets holding the tokens stands at just 1,700 as of Tuesday - even as they have surged to a market capitalization of above $105 million.

In comparison, projects with a similar capitalization have a significantly higher number of holders. Metis blockchain boasts 17,000 holders of its METIS tokens, while crypto bridge Synapse has 7,612 holders of SYN tokens.

These numbers do not account for the token holders who may have purchased these assets via a centralized exchange.

Zhu and Davies were previously founders of the defunct crypto fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), which imploded last June as its massive bets on Terra (LUNA) and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) went awry. The failed crypto fund imploded with an estimated $2.5 billion of clients’ money.

The duo has since teamed with the co-founders of crypto exchange CoinFlex on the creation of OPNX, touting it as the "world's first public marketplace for crypto claims trading and derivatives."

But OPNX has since been off to a rocky start, marred with poor volumes and a general lack of trust from market participants given the history of their operators.