The number of cryptocurrencies in the market has been on a steady uptrend since they started becoming more popular recently. They have no doubt come a long way from 2009 when bitcoin was really the only major cryptocurrency. Now, more cryptocurrencies are being issued into the market as the technology in the space has evolved to make it easy for anyone to make one.
Cryptocurrencies Surge In 2021
This ease of creating cryptocurrencies had led to a large influx of new coins into the market. Going into 2021, the number of cryptocurrencies in the space sat at 8,153 on January 1st. This 8,153 number accounts for all of the coins that have been created since bitcoin first broke into the space a little over a decade ago. Now, this number has almost doubled according to a report published by Finbold, indicating that almost half of the coins in the crypto market were created and launched this year.
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The report shows that 8,070 new coins were created in 2021 alone, leading to an almost 100% increase in just the space of a year. In total, there are now 16,223 cryptocurrencies in the crypto market.
On average, there are about 21 new cryptocurrencies that are launched in the market every day. The total number of cryptos in the market had hit a new high in October when it had hit the 13,000 mark. Then, in just the last two months, there have been over 3,000 new coins introduced into the market, showing an accelerated rate at which these new coins are being launched.
This number is expected to continue to rise in 2022 as the emergence of new technology in the crypto space makes it easier to create a token. In some cases, it only takes a couple of minutes for anyone to create their own token and launch it into the market.
Crypto total market cap grew over $1.5 trillion in 2021 | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap on TradingView.com
Meme Coins And Shitcoins Driving The Growth
The role that meme coins have played in the rising number of cryptocurrencies in the market cannot be underestimated. Although news coins were already being launched at a faster rate than any other year in history, the popularity and success of coins like Shiba Inu and Dogecoin helped to fuel this growth.
Coins like these proved that a digital asset need not have a proven use case for it to be successful in the market. Going on just hype alone, these cryptocurrencies were successful enough for their market caps to enter into the billions and make a few millionaires while they were at it.
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This has encouraged more people to create what are essentially ‘shitcoins’, cryptocurrencies with no use cases or long-term plan, hoping to be the next SHIB or DOGE, with some just being outright scams and rug pulling their investors.
Nevertheless, the new coins, despite being the larger majority, still control a small portion of the total crypto market cap. It is estimated that the top 3 coins by market cap, or 0.02%, control about 70% of the crypto market cap. Broadened to the top 10, this market dominance grows significantly.
Featured image from EyeOnMobility, chart from TradingView.com