The Token Explosion : Growth or Overload ?

The crypto industry is undergoing an unprecedented proliferation phase. With nearly 11 million tokens listed on CoinMarketCap, the market is facing a dynamic that could redefine its balance. This rapid expansion raises essential questions: are we witnessing market saturation or a natural evolution of the crypto ecosystem? Between speculative fervor and growing concerns about the viability of this multiplication of assets, the year 2025 marks a decisive turning point.

A market flooded with new assets

The exponential growth in the number of cryptos is not trivial. In 2024 and early 2025, a massive wave of token creations emerged, notably driven by memecoins on Solana. These new assets, often launched in a purely speculative mode, are capturing an increasing share of investor attention. “With such an abundance of supply, the market has changed profoundly,” observes Ali Martinez in a post on the social network X (formerly Twitter) on January 25, 2025. The figure is staggering: more than 36 million altcoins exist today, compared to less than 3,000 in 2018 and just 500 in 2013-2014.

This multiplication of tokens presents a central problem: the scattering of capital and investor attention. In an environment where every new crypto seeks to capture a share of the market, more solid and technologically advanced projects struggle to stand out. According to Martinez, this dilution of funds and speculative interest could even hinder the emergence of a new altcoin season, traditionally marked by spectacular surges of these alternative assets.

An inevitable market consolidation ?

In the face of this proliferation, some figures in the sector are calling for more effective regulation of listings. Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, admitted that the manual evaluation of tokens is no longer viable. “We need to rethink our listing process at Coinbase, as a million new tokens are created every week,” he stated on the X platform on January 26, 2025. This recognition highlights the scale of the phenomenon and the urgency for exchanges to adapt to the realities of a changing market.

For his part, Dan Novaes, co-founder of the EARN’M platform, believes that 2025 will be a pivotal year for the industry. He feels that the excessive proliferation of cryptos should lead to a phase of consolidation, similar to that which affected the mobile app market between 2008 and 2010. Mergers between projects and the streamlining of offerings are expected to emerge as a natural response to this abundance.

The explosion in the number of cryptos reflects both the increased enthusiasm for blockchain innovation and the risks associated with an excessive supply. This digital overcrowding could force the market to evolve towards a more mature and selective model, where only the most solid and well-structured projects will survive. While the current period seems marked by an excess of fragmentation, the rationalization of assets and better structuring of evaluation processes could redefine the rules of the game. Thus, the future of cryptos does not rest so much on their quantity, but rather on their ability to create real added value.