New Delhi: Despite the crypto crash and major exchanges filing for bankruptcy, nearly 5,000 new cryptocurrencies emerged this year, a new report has shown.
Research compiled by Bitstacker.com revealed that there have been 4,921 cryptocurrencies added since the start of the year.
The research was based on the total number of crypto coins tracked by CoinMarketCap.com on the first day of each month.
“On January 1, 2022, there were 16,238 cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap.com, whereas November 1 saw 21,159 crypto coins featured on the crypto data authority,” the report mentioned.
While this is largely a positive trend, the month-on-month percentage change is actually decreasing.
For example, between January and February 2022, there was a 6.25 per cent month-on-month percentage increase in the number of tracked cryptocurrencies.
However, June saw a 2.44 per cent increase in the number of tracked cryptocurrencies compared to May.
While there was a brief rebound in July with a 5.26 per cent increase in tracked cryptocurrencies, the figures have seen a gradual slowdown in the release of new crypto coins.
“The quietest month was in August where there was just a 1.65 per cent increase, while November was only marginally better with an increase of 1.67 per cent in the number of tracked cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap.com,” said the report.
Bitcoin was launched 13 years ago in January 2009. It took just a few years for Bitcoin to provide proof that a viable alternative digital payment system could work and this led to the rise of a number of ‘altcoins’ such as Litecoin being created.
“Much of this has been attributed to the fact that open-source software is used to create the code underlying each cryptocurrency and Blockchain project,” according to the report.
2022 has so far been a bitter year for the sector, with major cryptocurrency brands such as FTX, Celsius Network, Voyager Digital and now BlockFi having filed for bankruptcy.
While few new coins can have as successful an ICO as when Ethereum was launched in 2014, they have all helped counter the prevailing thought that cryptocurrencies have crashed, said the report.
On Thursday, the global cryptocurrency market cap was $895 billion and the market cap of Bitcoin was $328 billion, representing 36.69 per cent share.
The value of Bitcoin peaked at nearly $69,000 in November 2021 before falling to around $17,000, where it is still hovering now.
–IANS