Since they have become more popular recently, the number of cryptocurrencies on the market has been steadily increasing. They had undoubtedly gone a long way since 2009 when bitcoin was the only prominent cryptocurrency. More cryptocurrencies are now being issued into the market as the technology in the field has advanced to make it simple for anybody to create one.
The ease with which cryptocurrencies can be created has resulted in a massive influx of new coins entering the market. On January 1st, 2021, the number of cryptocurrencies in the space was 8,153. This 8,153 figure represents all of the coins that have been minted since bitcoin first entered the market a little more than a decade ago. According to Finbold research, this number has nearly doubled, suggesting that over half of the currencies in the crypto market were produced and launched this year.
According to the research, 8,070 new coins were made in 2021 alone, representing an almost 100 percent growth in just a year. The crypto market now has a total of 16,223 cryptocurrencies.
Every day, approximately 21 new cryptocurrencies are introduced into the market. The overall number of cryptos in the market reached a new high in October, surpassing 13,000 for the first time. Then, over 3,000 new coins have been brought into the market in only the last two months, indicating an increased rate at which these new coins are being launched.
This figure is projected to climb further in 2022 as new technology in the crypto field makes it easier to create a token. In some circumstances, anyone can design their token and launch it onto the market in a matter of minutes.
The importance of meme coins in the rise of cryptocurrencies in the market cannot be overstated. Although new coins were being introduced at a higher rate than in any other year in history, the popularity and success of coins such as Shiba Inu and Dogecoin aided in this expansion.
Coins like these demonstrated that a digital asset does not need to have a proven use case to be successful in the market. Based only on hype, these cryptocurrencies were successful enough for their market caps to reach the billions and create a few billionaires in the process.
This has inspired more people to create what are essentially’shitcoins,’ cryptocurrencies with no use cases or long-term plans, hoping to be the next SHIB or DOGE, with others simply being plain scams and pulling the rug out from under their investors.
Nonetheless, while being the majority, the new currencies hold only a small percentage of the total crypto market cap. The top three coins by market cap, or 0.02 percent, control over 70% of the crypto market cap. It becomes substantially more pronounced when this market domination is expanded to the top ten.
