Under the brutal harvesting, who is looking forward to the next COAI?
From MYX to COAI, the so-called tenfold and hundredfold myth is merely a quicker exit path under the spotlight of Binance Alpha.Author: zhou, ChainCatcher
Since September, the cryptocurrency market has witnessed a series of brutal harvesting events, from MYX, AIA to COAI, where manipulators and project teams have teamed up to use high control and manipulation tactics to sweep away retail investors' funds. Despite the obvious signs of harvesting, a large number of users in the market are still looking forward to the next "hundredfold coin," fearing they might miss the opportunity to get rich.
Evolution of the "Harvesting Template" from MYX to COAI
This scene began with MYX.Finance, a decentralized derivatives exchange based on the Arbitrum chain. Its token MYX was launched on Binance Alpha in early September with an initial market cap of about $100 million and relatively flat trading volume. In early September, MYX suddenly ignited and surged, with its market cap quickly climbing to over $3 billion, followed by a high-level consolidation phase, accompanied by intraday "needle-like lifts" and pullbacks, with funding rates turning negative and the top ten addresses holding over 95% of the supply. According to coinglass data, on September 18, MYX surged 298.18% in a single day, with an intraday volatility of up to 317.11%, during which short positions faced liquidations of $52.086 million and long positions $10.5109 million. At the beginning of October, the price entered a waterfall-like decline, with brief rebounds but quickly continuing to drop, and since then MYX has been in a downward trend, with its market cap currently falling and stabilizing around $500 million.
Following closely, the first wave of follower projects, DeAgentAI (AIA), quickly emerged, attracting market attention with its AI agent narrative. At the beginning of October, the price once surged over tenfold, then repeated the MYX playbook, harvesting retail investors through multiple spikes and drops, with a concentration of holdings as high as 97%. If AIA is a lightweight copy of the MYX template, then ChainOpera (COAI) has pushed this model to the extreme.
On September 25, COAI landed on Binance Alpha and the contract platform, with an initial market cap of only $15 million. Within weeks, it surged hundreds of times, with a peak market cap exceeding $8 billion, followed by violent fluctuations between $5 and $25. Such dramatic rises and falls, akin to a halving washout, have made it one of the most eye-catching "meme coins" of the year. Several traders analyzed that the top ten holders of COAI control 96.5%-97% of the circulating supply, with manipulators inducing retail investors to follow suit through price surges (such as an 81% spike on October 15) and then clearing positions with crashes (such as a 58% drop on October 25), leaving retail investors with little recourse.
It is important to note that newly launched tokens often have high concentration of holdings due to initial issuance being dominated by project teams, institutional investors, or market makers (MM), with the top ten addresses typically holding 30%-60% of the supply. In the case of new tokens on Alpha, the top ten addresses usually hold between 50%-80%, with 95% representing an extremely concentrated state.
From MYX to COAI, the manipulators' tactics have become increasingly sophisticated: first creating hype around hot topics, easily manipulating coin prices using concentrated chips and control advantages, and then amplifying the funding effect through contracts to achieve high-level exits. If retail investors concentrate on shorting, manipulators can not only earn funding fees but also use the liquidated funds to drive prices up, further consolidating their control.
"Control is Justice" Driven by FOMO
Recently, many users on X have been posting images to flaunt their short-term trading results, with survivor bias masking a large number of liquidation losses, giving rise to an illusion of low expectations and high returns.
The community's attitude has also shifted: from initially criticizing MYX as a "three-no project" (no code maintenance, no buyback promises, no community foundation), questioning the rationality of its surge to a market cap of billions; to now some investors being swept up by FOMO, gradually accepting that "control is justice," dreaming that the story of getting rich overnight could happen to them.
Crypto investor @huahuayjy stated that the emergence of MYX has epoch-making significance for the crypto space, as it forcefully opened the ceiling for altcoins, making market makers and project teams realize the potential for huge profits from price manipulation. Subsequent imitators may drive a mini bull market for altcoins. However, opposing views argue that a true altcoin season relies on overall liquidity easing and new capital entering the market, rather than a few projects playing hot potato; some even believe that the MYX model may signal the end of a bull market, making it harder for small projects to break out.
Additionally, KOL sanyi.eth reflected that after losing money shorting MYX, they have actively avoided meme coins. COAI rose from $0.3 to $61 and then retraced to $18. Although this project previously secured about $17 million in funding and is positioned in the AI sector, its project foundation is not weak. However, compared to its price and valuation, market sentiment is clearly overheated, and retail investors participating in such volatile coins often end up facing liquidations or paying high fees.
As a large number of retail investors still flock to MYX and COAI, it shows that the market's pursuit of fairness has gradually given way to the chase for speculative profits. In other words, as long as there is still a chance to gamble on contracts, many people do not care whether the project teams and market makers are manipulating behind the scenes.
It is worth mentioning that according to X user @hellosuoha, at the KBW 2025 conference held in Seoul last month, the trading depth of projects like MYX, AVNT, and IP attracted attention, and the market makers behind them have become key contacts for potential new token project teams.
Similar models are being crazily replicated, and more MYX-like projects may emerge in the future. In this ecosystem, retail investors obsessed with FOMO will only face more intense liquidation lines.
Does Alpha Narrative Amplify Harvesting Effects?
Essentially, the significant volatility of these coins after their launch stems from direct manipulation by manipulators and project teams; on the other hand, the Alpha platform's narrative accelerates retail investor entry, providing manipulators with a broader "hunting ground," evolving into a standardized script that replicates faster and exits more ruthlessly.
This may also reveal one of the design intentions of Binance Alpha: to attract speculators with its low circulation and high volatility characteristics. After all, there are always those willing to pay for volatility—some come for the airdrops, some stay for short-term profits, and ultimately, some pay the price in the volatility.
In addition to high-control coins like MYX, AIA, and COAI, many irregularities have also emerged on the Alpha platform: some projects go to zero or flash crash immediately upon launch, and there are projects involved in false narratives or code plagiarism. Overall, the platform's motivation to attract speculative funds far outweighs its intention to incubate projects.
From another perspective, the emergence of Alpha is not inherently sinful; it is merely a high-volatility experimental field focused on early new products. However, when narrative, structure, and human nature overlap, volatility becomes a harvesting machine. According to coinmarketcap data, Binance Alpha's 24-hour trading volume exceeds $8 billion, far surpassing many small and medium-sized crypto exchanges, indicating that this "brutal growth" is not coincidental but a product of the interplay between capital and traffic.
Conclusion
On one side, manipulators and project teams are using the high volatility of the Alpha platform to create green exit channels, while on the other side, retail investors remain obsessed with the fantasy of the next "hundredfold coin." Greed and fear intertwine; human nature has always been this way. Rather than blindly chasing the next COAI, it is better to reflect on what position you are in this game.
Risk warning
