Rallying prices. Evolving regulatory behaviors. These are some of the factors directly contributing to the ongoing increase in new token listings on major exchanges. Everyone is involved, with centralized exchanges such as Binance and Bybit blazing the trail while startups are warming up to the idea of embracing tokens for community expansion and financing.
Interesting Numbers
More tokens have been listed on major asset exchanges in the first half of 2024, than in the entirety of 2023. This statistics, more than anything, points to the fact that Crypto is back to being in vogue.
According to Bloomberg’s analysis, exchanges that can process higher volumes of transactions, like Bybit and Binance, have seen coin listings go up by 11.6% 2,066 in the first half of the year. The same researcher found that listings are up nearly 32% to 488 for lower volume exchanges such as CoinJar and BTC Markets.
The most interesting part of this statistic is that it only takes into consideration data from centralized exchanges that hold custody of users' assets. The analysis doesn't recognise the splurge of memecoins that are inspired by internet memes or trends trading on decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap where users have control over their assets. More than one million meme coins have been issued in 2024 alone.
The rapid rise in token listings on centralized exchanges have been driven in no small amount by this year's rally in crypto prices. That in turn has been led by market bellwether, Bitcoin's more than 50% increase. Experts were expecting even more regulatory leeway, for which optimism has been bolstered. Earlier this year, US approved Bitcoin and Ether ETFs and there are speculations that Donald Trump will make a more crypto-friendly president if he is elected president in November.
Regulatory Clarity Can Increase Value
Cosmio Jang, a portfolio manager at digital-asset firm Pantera Capital, is optimistic that the changing political and regulatory stance toward crypto will be instrumental to driving positive change in the sector. He said, "Specifically, I hope that with regulatory clarity increasing, tokens with real value tied to strong fundamentals will stand out, and those without real value such as memecoins will lose out.”
And it's not just exchanges that are driving this performance. Startups are also back to launching tokens, from gaming coins to memecoins, which is helping to finance operations and expand community. This is a massive change from 2022, when a slew of scandals and bankruptcies such as the collapse of the FTX exchange, caused an unprecedented nosedive in the crypto market.
Bybit Leading The Pack
Despite this spike in new token listings on centralized exchanges, researcher Kaiko believes it is still likely smaller than it was in 2021. According to Kaijo, listings were down in 2022 by more than 50%, and fell another 20% last year. Analyzing further, Bybit has seen its trading volume and market share progressively spiked. The exchange has been the highest grossing among higher-volume exchanges, with token listings up to 83% since the start of 2023. Over the same period, Coinbase has been the most conservative, with its listings up 8.2% over the same period, according to an analysis by CCData.
It's a little different for Binance. The exchange settled with the US Department of Justice and several other agencies in November, agreeing to a $4.3 billion fine. It has since tightened listing requirements, making it more stringent for market makers and projects to work with the exchange.