The Crypto market has evolved rapidly over the last five-years, with the number of crypto tokens available as of March 2025 sitting at around 37 million. This number, according to cryptorover, is set to triple to around 100 million by the end of 2025.
As a point of comparison, there were fewer than a total of 3,000 tokens in the marketplace between 2017—2018 and less than 500 in 2013—2014.
According to data from CoinMarketCap and other crypto tracking platforms, there are around 25,000 cryptocurrencies in existence as of March 2025. The proliferation of crypto currencies highlights the rapid decentralization happening within the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.
There are several factors that have influenced this rapid growth in the number of cryptocurrencies:
The ease of creating a cryptocurrency:
Blockchain platforms like Base and Solana, allow developers to create their own tokens using smart contracts, making the creation and launching of a new cryptocurrency relatively simple. Many cryptocurrencies are created as SPL tokens on the Solana network, while others are built on alternative blockchains like Binance Smart Chain, Base, or Polygon.
Variated use cases:
Cryptocurrencies are no longer just digital currencies. They serve a wide range of purposes, including decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), gaming, supply chain management, and more. Each new use case often spawns its own set of tokens and coins.
Widespread Crypto Adoption:
The crypto market has attracted significant attention from investors seeking high returns. This has led to the creation of countless new projects, some of which are legitimate innovations, while others are speculative ventures or outright scams.
Major Crypto Currencies still dominate the Market
Despite the large growth in the number of cryptocurrencies, the crypto trading market is dominated by a few major players. Bitcoin and Ethereum account for a major segment of crypto trade volumes today with other smaller but significant cryptocurrencies including Binance Coin Cardano and Solana.
This concentration of value highlights the fact that while millions of cryptocurrencies exist, only a small percentage have achieved widespread adoption and recognition. Many smaller projects struggle to gain traction, and their tokens may have limited liquidity or utility
Luno introduces early-stage crypto assets
As a response to the ever growing crypto landscape, Africa’s leading crypto platform, Luno, has this morning announced it will now provide customers with secure access to crypto assets in the earlier stages of their development. This move responds to the growing maturity of the crypto industry and evolving consumer demand.
“We believe it is important that investors get safe access to more novel crypto use cases through a leading regulated operator,” said Aleks Andjelopolj, VP Product of Luno. “While we rigorously assess all assets before listing them, we will empower customers to make informed decisions by listing assets sooner and providing educational resources to help them understand the risks and opportunities.
Easy Identification & Information of Early Stage Crypto
Early-stage crypto assets will be marked with an ‘early stage’ label in the Luno app and links to detailed information to assist decision-making.
The company acknowledges that while early-stage projects may offer greater potential for returns, they typically carry higher risks and may experience higher-than-usual price volatility.
Berachain becomes the first early-stage project available on Luno’s platform. Having launched in February 2025, Berachain aims to create “a cooperative economy that rewards working capital by aligning incentives across the network” through its innovative Proof of Liquidity consensus mechanism to confirm transactions.
