By 2026, over 600,000 new cryptocurrencies have been created, most of which are just for testing ideas or seeking short-term attention

According to Finbold, as of January 12, 2026, the total number of cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap is 29.91 million, an increase of about 620,000 assets from 29.29 million on January 1. Over the past 30 days, more than 1.57 million new cryptocurrencies have been added, with 357,773 added in just the past 7 days.

The report states that launching a new token has a low deployment cost and requires no coding tools, typically only needing a wallet and a small transaction fee. Many tokens are created to test ideas or gain short-term attention rather than to build long-term infrastructure, which drives up the total number of tokens. However, most assets experience a price crash shortly after launch or fail due to lack of liquidity, poor utility, or waning interest.