Overview of New Coin Listings on Major Exchanges in January

The performance of centralized exchanges in 2024 has been disappointing, mocked as the exit liquidity on-chain.

Major centralized exchanges began listing new coins at the beginning of 2023. According to the latest statistics, OKX has adopted the most conservative listing strategy, launching only four tokens. In contrast, Bitget has taken a more proactive approach, listing 17 tokens this year, primarily through spot listings. Binance and Bybit have listed 11 and 13 tokens, respectively, with Binance having the lowest proportion of spot listings.

Now, let's take a closer look at the performance of these newly listed coins on each exchange.

From the beginning of the year to now, the average return rate of centralized exchanges remains negative, with Binance experiencing the largest decline. Among the four major exchanges, Binance has the worst performance, dropping about 10% on the first day, resulting in an average return rate of -36%. The data for other exchanges is not significantly different, with Bitget, despite having the highest number of listings, seeing a decline of about -27%.

The table above lists all the tokens newly launched by the four major exchanges since January (both spot and contracts). To avoid price manipulation, the statistics are based on the higher of the opening and closing prices on the day. From the above data, all new coins listed by Binance have negative returns, without exception. Bitget has two projects that rose against the trend in a sea of declines, while Bybit has one token that achieved positive returns, with the rest failing. OKX's four listed projects also all declined.

Additionally, most of the tokens launched in January are still concentrated in AI-related projects. After being criticized multiple times by the community for only listing VC coins, Binance's number of VC coin listings drastically decreased in January. Among the 11 tokens it listed, nine are related to AI agents, accounting for as much as 81%. However, due to Binance's listing time being on average one month later than other exchanges, the market capitalization had already peaked by the time of listing, leading to a dismal outcome. AI16Z dropped sharply after announcing its listing on Binance, declining over 10% within five minutes. Furthermore, the market capitalization of the projects listed by Binance is generally high, almost never below $100 million, which leads to subsequent price weakness and lack of upward momentum. In contrast, the few tokens that rose on Bitget, such as SWARMS and AVAAI, had market capitalizations below $100 million at the time of listing, indicating that the odds for small-cap tokens are gradually improving.

Previously, He Yi, head of Binance China, stated in the community, "If you don't like it, you can short it." Now, it seems that shorting new tokens on Binance is a surefire way to make money; moreover, other exchanges are performing quite mediocrely. If one shorts a new coin on the day it is listed, there are rarely any pullbacks; more tokens continue to fall, starting with a halving. The notion that listing on Binance guarantees a price increase has become a thing of the past, with "soul-drenched children" becoming the community's impression of the continuous declines of new listings on Binance.

According to the recent "2024 CEX Market Report" released by 0xScope, in the spot market trend, Binance's market share has shrunk from 50.9% to 42.5% year-on-year.

Now, let's analyze the centralized exchange listing effects in 2023.

In 2023, centralized exchanges are still the main channel for users to obtain new tokens. However, with the improvement of on-chain infrastructure and the rise of on-chain DEXs, the listing effects of centralized exchanges are gradually diminishing. On-chain DEXs are rapidly eroding the traditional advantages of centralized exchanges. As the on-chain user experience gradually improves and various DeFi innovations emerge, more and more users and funds will migrate to on-chain platforms. The high transparency, decentralization, and user ownership of funds in the on-chain ecosystem will further accelerate this shift.

However, this does not mean that centralized exchanges will exit the stage. With their advantages in compliant operations and convenient trading, centralized exchanges will still play an important role in user education, new asset introduction, and institutional capital entry. In the future, the boundaries between CEX and DEX may gradually blur. This liquidity battle will ultimately shift from competing for users and funds to enhancing user experience and promoting industry development. The battle for liquidity will bring more innovation and progress, and the crypto industry will ultimately prevail.