Author: Animoca Brands Research
Compiled by: Felix, PANews
This report analyzes over 3,000 spot token listing events across 9 major centralized exchanges (CEX) and more than 120 decentralized exchanges (DEX) in 2024. The aim is to assess the overall trends of token listings on various platforms and evaluate the price and trading volume performance of these tokens during the events.
Key Findings
Centralized exchanges adopt different strategies to determine listing priorities, focusing on different levels of fully diluted valuation (FDV). Exchanges that list fewer tokens tend to prioritize tokens with larger listing FDVs (over $500 million), while exchanges with higher listing frequencies tend to favor tokens with FDVs below $30 million.
Listing activities are closely related to Bitcoin's price trends, with increased activity during bull markets and decreased activity when Bitcoin's price stagnates. Although all FDV-sized tokens are affected by this trend, large FDV tokens are more sensitive to changes in market sentiment.
Price performance is measured by the 7-day and 30-day changes relative to the closing price on the listing day, largely reflecting Bitcoin's price trend, but there are indeed differences between exchanges. A "smile curve" pattern emerged: exchanges with the highest (like Binance) and lowest (like MEXC) average listing FDVs recorded positive price changes, while mid-sized exchanges (like Bybit and Bitget) experienced the largest declines.
In terms of trading volume, Binance leads in trading volume for newly listed tokens, followed by OKX and Upbit. Notably, Upbit's trading volume in the first 24 hours is comparable to Binance, while OKX leads in trading volume for tokens with FDVs between $30 million and $100 million.
Tokens that debuted on DEX with listing FDVs over $30 million performed comparably to those that debuted on mid-sized CEX. The price performance of tokens listed on DEX (measured by changes from Day 2 to Day 7 and Day 30) outperformed 4 out of 5 mid-sized CEX. The trading volume in the first 30 days was also similar to or higher than that of CEX like Kucoin, Gate, and MEXC.
It is not uncommon for DEX-listed tokens to later appear on mid-sized CEX, but it is rare for them to appear on large CEX. Among the DEX-listed tokens sampled in the second half of 2024, about 16% subsequently listed on CEX, with only 2% successfully listing on large exchanges like Binance, OKX, or Upbit.
CEX Listing Performance
Overview
The report recorded a total of 3,074 token listing events. 1,226 events (40%) were identified as primary listings, occurring within the first 2 days after the token's release; while 1,848 events (60%) were identified as secondary listings.
Most exchanges adopted a balanced approach, with nearly equal participation in primary and secondary listings.
Generally, exchanges listing high FDV projects focus on fewer, larger listings, while those listing smaller FDV projects have a higher number of listing events.
The two Korean exchanges, Upbit and Bithumb, primarily focus on secondary listings, which may mean that primary listings are not the first time a token is listed. In the remainder of this article, exchanges will be ranked by their average listing FDV, with those having high listing FDVs referred to as "large exchanges" and the rest as "mid-sized exchanges."
Monthly Summary of Listing Events
There were more listing events during bull markets (February to March and August to December), while the number of listing events decreased during market downturns.
April was a standout month, as listing events continued to rise despite a reversal in BTC prices. This effect was not evident in December, when BTC stagnated after two months of increases.
In terms of the number of listing events, top exchanges were less affected by the bear market, as reflected in the expanding share of listing events during these periods.
Summary of Listing Events by FDV
Large exchanges concentrated most of their listing efforts on the FDV category above $500 million, with the top four exchanges accounting for 25% of listing activities in this tier.
Nevertheless, mid-sized exchanges contributed the majority of listing activities in the above $500 million category, likely because projects on large exchanges often list concurrently on mid-sized exchanges, but the reverse is less common.
Mid-sized exchanges like Bybit, KuCoin, Bitget, and Gate have a more balanced volume of listings across the four FDV tiers, with a slightly larger share in the $30 million to $500 million range. MEXC adopted a different strategy, focusing on tokens with FDVs ≤ $30 million, which accounted for 70% of listing activities in this category.
Monthly Listing Events by FDV Tier
The FDV tier above $500 million is most susceptible to changes in market sentiment, with listing events rapidly increasing during the rebound from February to March, exceeding expectations in April, and then remaining in a contraction phase until the rebound from September to December.
The FDV tier ≤ $30 million closely tracked overall listing momentum during bull markets but occupied a larger share of listing events during periods like June to September.
Price Performance of Listings
The price performance across exchanges forms a "smile curve," with tokens at both ends performing better than those in the middle.
Tokens listed on the ends, Binance and MEXC, experienced positive price changes after 30 days, while the average price of tokens listed on Bybit and Bitget fell by about 10%.
The 7-day price performance exhibited a similar pattern, with Binance listings rising by about 3%, MEXC listings remaining flat, and mid-sized exchanges experiencing larger declines.
The median price change is typically lower than the average, indicating that a small number of token listing events account for a large share of the total.
Price Performance Summary by FDV Tier
The price change patterns for 7-day and 30-day periods differ by FDV tier.
Tokens in the ≤ $30 million FDV tier saw price declines after 7 days but rebounded strongly by Day 30, showing the largest contrast among the four tiers. Tokens in the $30 million to $100 million and >$500 million FDV tiers experienced moderate declines after 7 days, on average maintaining similar levels over 30 days.
Tokens in the $100 million to $500 million FDV tier fell by 2% in the first 7 days, but the decline expanded to over 11% by Day 30, indicating an overall downward trend after the first week.
Monthly Price Performance Summary of Listings
From a temporal perspective, price performance is primarily driven by market conditions. During BTC bull markets, token listings perform neutrally or positively. During BTC bear markets, token listings perform negatively.
Monthly Price Performance of Listings by Exchange
In February, October, and November, most exchanges maintained positive price changes, coinciding with significant increases in BTC prices.
January and May deviated from the overall BTC price trend: despite an impending rebound in BTC, tokens listed in January performed poorly; conversely, tokens listed in May performed well despite being in a slow bear market.
Although the market was neutral, tokens listed in December exhibited poor price performance.
Price Performance of Listings by FDV Tier
Compared to large exchanges like OKX and Bybit, the price performance of small FDV tokens listed on mid-sized exchanges like KuCoin, Gate, and MEXC was better.
Mid-sized FDV tokens ($30 million to $500 million) performed better on large exchanges than on mid-sized exchanges. The performance of large FDV tokens (> $500 million) was relatively consistent across exchanges, with minimal price fluctuations from Day 7 to Day 30.
Monthly Price Performance of Listings by FDV Tier
Small FDV tokens exhibited strong price performance, outperforming mid-sized FDV tokens ($30 million to $500 million) in 30-day price change rates across most months, regardless of market conditions.
Mid-sized FDV tokens experienced strong 7-day price increases in October and November but still lagged behind other categories at the 30-day mark.
Large FDV tokens demonstrated stronger consistency over several months, with positive price performance in half of the months for both 7-day and 30-day periods.
Trading Volume by Exchange
Binance leads in trading volume for newly listed tokens, followed by Upbit and OKX. Upbit's trading volume in the first 24 hours was strong, nearly matching Binance, but the 30-day trading volume fell to levels similar to OKX.
Among mid-sized exchanges, Bybit showed strong trading volume in both the first 24 hours and over the entire 30 days.
Monthly Summary of Trading Volume
Initial listing volumes largely followed bear/bull market cycles, with higher initial listing volumes during February to March and September to December.
In April, one month after the first wave of price increases, listing activities exceeded expectations, but trading volumes were below the 30-day average. This indicates that excessive listings during calmer market periods may dilute the trading volume of newly listed tokens.
Trading Volume by FDV Tier
Trading volume generally follows the tier of token FDV, with the maximum FDV tier having trading volumes 60 times that of the minimum FDV tier in the first 24 hours and 25 times that in the first 30 days.
Monthly Summary of Trading Volume by Exchange
In most months, Binance led in trading volume for newly listed tokens. Upbit's newly listed tokens exhibited high uncertainty in initial trading volume.
While it led in 30-day trading volume in February, July, and December, there were also several months where the trading volume for newly listed tokens was very low.
Trading Volume by FDV Tier Across Exchanges
Binance had the highest trading volume for listings, primarily concentrated in the $100 million to $500 million FDV category.
On the other hand, OKX showed significant trading volume for mid-sized FDV tokens ($30 million to $100 million).
Among mid-sized exchanges, Bybit maintained relatively stable trading volumes across all FDV tiers, while other mid-sized exchanges typically concentrated their trading volumes on mid-sized FDV tokens.
DEX vs CEX
DEX listings are often seen as a complement to CEX listings. The liquidity pools on DEX are typically created simultaneously with the initial CEX listing, allowing users to trade flexibly on-chain or through CEX. Conversely, listings that occur solely on DEX are usually associated with a more decentralized approach, primarily utilized by long-tail tokens with limited mainstream appeal.
However, an increasing number of projects are recently choosing DEX as their sole initial listing platform, delaying or forgoing CEX listings for a period. To assess the feasibility and impact of this strategy, this article analyzes relevant data and metrics to compare DEX and CEX.
To ensure an objective comparison, DEX listings are defined as tokens that maintain liquidity exclusively on decentralized exchanges for at least 30 days. For CEX listings, the focus is on primary listing events, representing tokens that introduce centralized exchanges as their primary trading venues. To avoid skewing results due to long-tail tokens, the analysis is limited to tokens with FDVs between $30 million and $500 million to ensure balance between the two groups of tokens.
When measuring price performance, the percentage change in price from Day 2 to Day 7 and from Day 2 to Day 30 is used, rather than the time periods from listing to Day 7 or Day 30. This adjustment considers the different price discovery mechanisms between CEX and DEX on the listing day; otherwise, direct comparisons would be invalid. For trading volume, a consistent approach is maintained, using trading volumes from the first 24 hours and 30 days as key indicators.
Summary of Listing Events: DEX vs CEX
A sample of 415 major listing events that occurred in the second half of 2024 was analyzed, focusing on tokens with fully diluted valuations (FDV) between $30 million and $500 million. Among these, 114 were classified as priority DEX listings, meaning the tokens were listed exclusively on DEX in the first month.
In August, DEX listings demonstrated a rebound in activity in the fourth quarter after being more sensitive to market momentum during a downturn. In the third quarter, priority DEX listings accounted for less than 20% of new tokens, but this proportion surged to over 30% in November and December.
Most CEX listings in this analysis were concentrated on mid-sized exchanges. In contrast, Binance and OKX had only a few listing events.
Price Changes at First Listing: DEX vs CEX
Among mid-sized CEX, the performance from Day 2 to Day 7 was mixed. By Day 30, all listed tokens, except those on MEXC, experienced negative price changes.
In contrast, tokens that were first listed on DEX showed positive growth by Day 7, with a slight decline by Day 30, outperforming most mid-sized CEX listed tokens.
OKX led in price performance among large CEX, with listed tokens increasing by about 14% from Day 2 to Day 7 and maintaining that level after 30 days. However, due to the limited amount of data, caution should be exercised when interpreting the performance of Binance and OKX.
Average Trading Volume at First Listing: DEX vs CEX
The trading volume on DEX is comparable to that of mid-sized CEX such as KuCoin, Gate, and MEXC, while the average trading volume for OKX and Binance is higher than that of other exchanges.
The concentration of trading volume in the first 24 hours for both DEX and CEX shows a similar pattern, indicating a consistent market focus on trends.
This trading volume performance, combined with price performance 30 days after listing, suggests that the initial DEX listing can have an impact on token performance comparable to that of mid-sized CEX.
Token Listing Tier Analysis
The sample of 415 listing events covered a total of 238 tokens. Among these, 126 tokens were initially listed only on DEX, while the remaining tokens were listed on mid-sized or large centralized exchanges. It is important to note that the DEX listed tokens included in the analysis are limited to those indexed on CoinMarketCap.
Of the tokens initially listed on DEX, about 16% were later listed on CEX, primarily in the mid-sized CEX category. However, only 2% of the tokens that debuted on DEX subsequently gained support on top-tier CEXs (such as Binance, Upbit, or OKX). For tokens that debuted on mid-sized CEXs, about 3% eventually made it to high FDV CEXs, which is comparable to the likelihood of tokens that debuted on DEX.
These findings suggest that while priority DEX tokens have a considerable chance of being listed on CEX, they are most likely to land on mid-sized exchanges. Regardless of whether tokens start on DEX or mid-sized CEX, the likelihood of mid-sized FDV tokens entering top-tier CEXs remains low.
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