From MYX to COAI, who is creating the alts harvesting template?

Written by: zhou, ChainCatcher

Reprint: White55, Mars Finance

Since September, the cryptocurrency market has staged a series of brutal harvesting performances. From MYX, AIA to COAI, the manipulators and project parties have teamed up to use high control and manipulation techniques 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 that they might miss the opportunity to get rich.

The evolution of the “harvesting template” from MYX to COAI

The beginning of this scene started with MYX.Finance, a decentralized derivatives exchange based on the Arbitrum chain. Its token MYX was listed on Binance Alpha in early September with an initial market value of about $100 million and relatively flat trading volume. In early September, MYX suddenly ignited and surged, with its market value quickly climbing to over $3 billion, followed by a phase of high-level fluctuations, accompanied by intraday “needle-style” rallies and pullbacks, with the funding rate turning negative and the top ten addresses holding over 95% of the positions. 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 lost $52.0863 million and long positions lost $10.5109 million. At the beginning of October, the price entered a waterfall-style decline, and although there were brief rebounds during this period, it quickly continued to plunge. Since then, MYX has been on a downward trend, and its market value has fallen back and stabilized around $500 million.

Following closely, the first wave of trend-following project DeAgentAI (AIA) quickly made its debut, attracting market attention with AI agent narratives. At the beginning of October, the price once surged more than ten times, and then it repeated the MYX playbook, harvesting retail investors through multiple price spikes and drops, with a holding concentration as high as 97%. If AIA is a lightweight copy of the MYX template, then ChainOpera (COAI) pushes this model to the extreme.

On September 25, COAI was listed on Binance Alpha and the contract platform, with an initial market value of only $15 million. Within a few weeks, its value surged hundreds of times, reaching a market cap of over $8 billion. Subsequently, the price fluctuated dramatically between $5 and $25. Such a volatile rise and fall, reminiscent of a halving, is considered one of the most eye-catching “meme coins” of the year. Several traders have analyzed that the top ten holders of COAI control 96.5%-97% of the circulating supply. The market makers entice retail investors to follow suit by driving up the price (such as the 81% surge on October 15) and then crashing it (such as the 58% drop on October 25), leaving retail investors almost defenseless.

It is important to note that newly launched tokens often have a high concentration of holdings due to initial issuance being dominated by project parties, institutional investors, or market makers (MM). It is common for the top 10 addresses to hold 30%-60% of the supply, while in Alpha new coins, the top 10 addresses typically hold between 50%-80%, with 95% representing an extreme concentration.

From MYX to COAI, the tactics of the market makers have become increasingly sophisticated: first, they create momentum through hot topics, easily manipulating the coin price by leveraging concentrated chips and control advantages, and then they achieve high-level selling through contracts that amplify the capital effect. If retail investors concentrate on shorting, the market makers can not only earn funding rates but also utilize the liquidation funds to pump the price, further solidifying their control.

“Control the Market, Control Justice” Driven by FOMO

Recently, many users on X have been posting pictures to flaunt their short-term trading achievements, while survivor bias has obscured 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 harshly criticizing MYX as a “three-nothing project” (no code maintenance, no buyback commitment, no community foundation), questioning the rationality of its soaring market value to now where some investors, swept up by FOMO, gradually accept the notion that “controlling the market is justice,” hoping that the story of becoming rich overnight will happen to them.

Crypto investor @huahuayjy stated that the emergence of MYX is epoch-making for the cryptocurrency circle, as it strongly breaks the ceiling for altcoins, making market makers and project parties realize the potential for huge profits from price manipulation. Subsequent imitators may drive a small bull market for altcoins. However, opposing opinions point out that a true altcoin season relies on overall liquidity easing and new funds entering the market, rather than a few projects playing a game of hot potato; some even argue that the MYX model may indicate the end of the bull market, making it harder for small projects to break through.

In addition, KOL sanyi.eth reflects that after shorting MYX and incurring losses, he has actively avoided meme coins. COAI rose from $0.3 to $61 and then retraced to $18. Although the project previously secured about $17 million in funding and is positioned in the AI sector, its foundation is not weak. However, compared to the token price and valuation, market sentiment is clearly overheated. Retail investors participating in such volatile tokens often end up facing liquidation or paying high fees.

When a large number of retail investors are still flocking 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 team and market makers are behind the scenes.

It is worth mentioning that, according to X user @hellosuoha, at the KBW 2025 conference held in Seoul, South Korea 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 token issuers.

Similar models are being crazily replicated, and more MYX-style projects may emerge in the future. In this ecosystem, retail investors who are obsessed with FOMO will only face more intensive liquidation lines.

Alpha narrative amplification harvesting effect?

Essentially, the significant fluctuations in these cryptocurrencies after their launch are partly due to direct manipulation by the market makers and project parties; on the other hand, the accelerated narrative of the Alpha platform has facilitated retail investors' entry, providing market makers with a broader “hunting ground,” which has evolved 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 midst of volatility.

In addition to high-control coins like MYX, AIA, and COAI, the Alpha platform has also seen a number of chaotic phenomena: some projects go to zero or crash immediately upon launch, and there are also projects involved in false narratives or code plagiarism. Overall, the motivation of the platform to attract speculative funds far exceeds that of incubating projects.

From another perspective, the emergence of Alpha was not originally sinful; it was merely a high-volatility experimental ground focused on early new products. However, when narrative, structure, and human nature overlap, volatility becomes a harvesting machine. According to data from CoinMarketCap, Binance Alpha's 24-hour trading volume exceeds $8 billion, far surpassing many small to medium-sized cryptocurrency exchanges, which also indicates that this kind of “barbaric growth” is not accidental, but rather a product of the joint action of capital and traffic.

Conclusion

On one side are the dealers and project parties leveraging the high volatility of the Alpha platform to create a green exit channel, while on the other side, retail investors remain obsessed with the fantasy of the next “hundredfold coin.” Greed and fear intertwine, as human nature has always been. Rather than blindly chasing the next COAI, it is better to reflect on what position you hold in this game.