Kaiko: in 2023, 3,445+ crypto tokens or trading pairs are being delisted or have been inactive for long enough to be dropped by exchanges, 15% more than in 2022
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg :
Context & Ripple Effects
The increase in removals follows a broad contraction in crypto trading activity: Kaiko had reported steep year-over-year declines in spot volumes across both decentralized and centralized venues, while daily volume in the top 10 tokens also fell amid U.S. regulatory pressure.
That makes delisting and inactivity a market-structure signal, not just a token-level outcome: exchanges are pruning instruments that no longer sustain trading, reducing the set of readily accessible markets for users.
First-order effects
- Exchanges remove or cease supporting more thinly traded tokens and pairs, while holders lose a venue for trading those assets and may need to transfer or convert positions.
- The remaining listed markets become relatively more important for price discovery and liquidity as 3,445-plus instruments are delisted or treated as inactive.
Second-order effects
- Projects with weak trading activity face a higher hurdle to retain distribution, incentivizing efforts to build liquidity or secure listings on the exchanges that remain available.
- Liquidity and trading attention can concentrate further in established tokens and major venues, reinforcing the volume weakness already evident in the 2023 spot-market downturn.
Third-order effects
- If removals continue through weak-volume periods, exchange listing policies may become a more consequential gatekeeper for which crypto assets remain tradable at scale.
- The pattern points to a more curated, liquidity-led crypto market rather than one in which the long tail of token launches reliably retains exchange access; the scale of that shift depends on whether trading demand recovers.
The trend: Crypto markets are moving from expansive token listing toward liquidity-driven consolidation and more active exchange curation.