The study shows that in 2022, twice as many digital tokens ceased to be traded than in all previous years combined. Technically the coins exist, but they are inactive
12.1 thousand cryptocurrencies have turned into “zombies”, that is, they have not been traded for at least a month, Bloomberg reports citing a study by Nomics. Technically, these tokens exist, but they are inactive.
During the bull market of 2021, many crypto startups issued their tokens, however, the strong market downturn in 2022 made it difficult for even successful projects to maintain operations due to the loss of access to funding, not to mention startups that issued coins and exited. at ICO, without even having working prototypes, the article says.
The number of “forgotten” cryptocurrencies this year is more than double that of all previous years combined, follows from the report. In 2018, a total of 136 tokens ceased activity, in 2019 – 766, in 2020 there were 1.5 thousand such coins, and in 2021 – 3.7 thousand.
In addition, analysts note that even among active coins, trading can be negligible. Of the more than 64.4k assets tracked by Nomics, only about 13.8k traded in the last 24-hour period last week. Also, there are many coins that are not quite “zombies” yet, but are already close to it and are traded for a fraction of a cent. One of such examples was called Terra Luna Classic ($0.0003).
Unlike other industries, in the crypto industry, assets and projects cease to exist imperceptibly. This is one of the reasons why new coins continue to appear and others are abandoned, the researchers say. And so it is possible that the next bull cycle will bring even more new tokens, many of which will become inactive over time.
Simultaneously with the “oblivion” of many cryptocurrencies, sales of NFT tokens have also decreased this year due to the fall of the crypto market. So, in June of this year, for the first time since June 2021, sales in the NFT market amounted to less than $1 billion per month.
