25 Jul, 2025
3 minutes
At mid-year 2025, the total number of cryptocurrencies in existence has never been more than it is now. With the advent of thousands of projects since Bitcoin in 2009, the crypto space has evolved to be one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors of finance. But now the question remains: how many cryptocurrencies are there today?
The number isn't fixed-it changes almost every day. Based on real-time numbers from top market aggregators, over 24,000 cryptocurrencies exist today in the world. This includes live coins, dead tokens, forks, wrapped assets, and stablecoins. But not all such projects are viable or well-traded.
People, investors and crypto enthusiasts are also asking how many different cryptocurrencies there are in the world 2025 or how many active cryptocurrencies are present today. And this article will give a straightforward analysis of the overall number of cryptocurrencies, describe why the figure continues to increase, point out how many are current, and incorporate figures from top platforms such as Binance, Coinbase, and CoinMarketCap.
The accelerating growth in the number of cryptocurrencies is driven by concurrent technological advancement, speculation, low barriers to entry, and growing applications of blockchain technology. To understand how many cryptocurrencies there are in 2025, it is important to learn the reasons why there are so many new ones emerging.
It is technically simple and inexpensive to issue a new token on chains like Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, or Solana. That allows developers, firms, and even individual users to launch new cryptocurrencies at minimal cost or regulation.
The expansion of DeFi (Decentralized Finance), NFTs, gaming, and decentralized applications (dApps) has fueled the demand for project-based tokens. Each new protocol has its own utility or governance token.
Bull markets attract a torrent of speculative funds. Tokens are created merely to trade or promote, and this leads to surges in overall listings-although most of these tokens later become inoperative or obsolete.
Forked blockchains (like Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum Classic) and wrapped tokens (like WBTC, WETH) are some of the causes for the rising token count. Cross-chain infrastructure also creates multiples of the identical token on other chains.
There are many projects designed for local ecosystems, gaming platforms, or DAO networks. The niche tokens are locally visible but are counted anyway.
This is the reason why, when inquiring about how many cryptocurrencies there are today, the figure is much more than merely the coins folks exchange day to day. The following sections will consider how the figure has progressed over time as well as possible future scenarios.
As of 2025, the global cryptocurrency market is worth over $2.6 trillion, with Bitcoin and Ethereum at the front. But the market keeps expanding far beyond the large-cap players. With half a million or more cryptocurrencies in circulation, total market capitalization will balloon in the next five years-powered by institutional adoption, DeFi expansion, and emerging Layer-1 ecosystems.
Most of that growth will be fueled by existing assets, but thousands of new tokens will fuel niche markets, decentralized applications, tokenized assets, and synthetic financial instruments.
Tokenization of real-world assets (RWA)
Mainstream adoption of stablecoins
Cross-chain infrastructure upgrades
Corporate adoption of on-chain loyalty and utility tokens
While asking how many cryptocurrencies are available in the world today is also necessary to ask what portion of the market they represent. The first 100 tokens are responsible for over 85% of the total value, and the remaining thousands are comprised of a long tail of micro-cap assets with very volatile liquidity and utilities.
The number of cryptocurrencies has grown exponentially since the launch of Bitcoin in 2009. What began with a single digital asset has evolved into a global ecosystem of over 24,000 tokens as of June 2025. This section explores how many cryptocurrencies are there today reflecting broader trends in blockchain adoption and innovation.
2017: The ICO bubble saw an enormous explosion in ERC-20 tokens, bringing their count well above 1,000.
2020-2021: DeFi platforms and NFTs drove another wave of tokenization, particularly on Ethereum and BNB Chain.
2022-2025: Layer-2 networks, multi-chain deployment, and app-specific tokens added to their counts again.
Ethereum continues to dominate token launches due to its ERC-20 standard.
BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, and Solana are also significant platforms for fast, cheap token issuance.
Arbitrum, Optimism, and other L2 networks now host thousands of new tokens as gas prices drop and user bases grow.
So in asking the question "how many different cryptocurrencies are there in 2025?", it's clear the figure has ballooned not because of some major coins, but due to rising use of crypto infrastructure for niche, testing, and localized projects.
Although there are over 24,000 cryptocurrencies in 2025, not all of them get traded or updated. The majority of tokens are delisted, forgotten, or created for a specific occasion. For this reason, the real question is really: how many active cryptocurrencies are there today?
June 2025 estimates indicate there are only 9,000-11,000 cryptocurrencies that are regularly supported or traded on at least one exchange.
The rest are inactive, i.e., they possess zero trading volume, zero developer activity, or are delisted.
This makes it important to distinguish between:
Total cryptocurrencies: All the tokens that have been created, including the failed, inactive, or experimental initiatives.
Active cryptocurrencies: initiatives with active updates, user bases, or tradable markets.
Most active tokens are traded on aggregators like:
CoinMarketCap (tracks 10,000+)
CoinGecko (tracks 11,000+)
DexTools, TradingView, and CMC substitutes also include tokens exchanged on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), which may not be found on leading centralized platforms.
If you're learning about how many total cryptocurrencies are there, the more significant measurement is how many are still relevant today. That amount is less than half of the total number-showing that while crypto is open and abundant, much of its worth is contained within a smaller subset of viable projects.
Of the 24,000+ cryptocurrencies that have been created since the beginning of Bitcoin, over 14,000 have already failed up to 2025. Some of these coins are:
Abandoned by devs
Listed on no exchanges
Rug pulls or scams
Made for short-term hype (e.g., meme tokens)
This highlights that creating a token is easy but keeping adoption and usability is much more difficult.
As of mid-2025, there are about 400-500 listed cryptocurrencies on Binance, including leading coins, popular altcoins, and a few newly established projects. Binance has high listing standards that include liquidity, compliance, and community demand, hence only taking in a minuscule percentage of the global total.
On average, 150-300 fresh cryptocurrencies are launched each week on various blockchains, including Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Solana, and Layer-2 networks. The majority are experimental, ephemeral, or created for a specific dApp or community.
CoinMarketCap currently tracks over 10,700 active cryptocurrencies as of June 2025. They are tokens and coins on centralized and decentralized exchanges, with foundational data on price, volume, and supply.
Coinbase, being a cautious player, supports around 250-300 cryptocurrencies for trading and custody. All the major assets and a curated list of approved tokens that meet regulatory and technical conditions in Europe and the US are supported.
