CryptoRank: CEX Token Listings Fall to Lowest Level Since 2023 as Exchanges Unwind 2025 Boom

New token listings across major centralized exchanges fell to 351 in the second quarter of 2026, the lowest quarterly total since the third quarter of 2023, according to CryptoRank. It was the second consecutive quarterly decline and only the second quarter since 2024 in which delistings outpaced new listings.

The only other quarter in that period where removals exceeded new listings was the second quarter of 2025. CryptoRank attributed that earlier inversion to a one-time wave of removals by the exchange Gate rather than a genuine slowdown. That distinction makes the second-quarter 2026 decline a more meaningful signal of where the listing pipeline stands after the record-setting listing boom of 2025.

Listings peaked in the third quarter of 2025 as Bitcoin reached a new all-time high, with DeFi, Meme, and Blockchain the most-listed categories at the top of the cycle, per CryptoRank data. As of mid-2026, only 6.8% of the tokens listed in 2025 had been delisted, though the rate varied sharply by category.

NFT projects recorded the highest delisting rate at 19%, followed by GameFi at 14% and Meme tokens at 11%, according to CryptoRank. The categories unwinding the fastest were the same ones that supplied the bulk of new listings during the boom, which CryptoRank said suggests exchanges are reducing exposure roughly in proportion to how aggressively they built it up.

Tokenized assets were the exception. Despite ranking among the most-listed categories of 2025, none of those tokens had been delisted by mid-2026, which CryptoRank said points to a more durable listing standard being applied to that category.

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