[DarpalRating] Token listing comparison: Which exchange has listed the most profitable tokens since last December?

13 min readApr 4, 2018

April 4th, 2018; by Darpal Rating team, Translated by Xu Guangqian & Tyler Garant

DarpalRating makes evaluations on the quality of new tokens listed on exchanges. Here are our evaluations from February.

You are welcome to use any data on this list, but please make sure that the source is indicated.

New tokens keep springing up in the market while plenty more wait to be listed. It is reasonable to question the quality and necessity of newly listed tokens. Because exchanges can make a large amount of money from both the project itself and its investors, many exchanges will keep listing new tokens. In evaluating which exchanges performed the best in listing new tokens, we looked at newly listed tokens on each market and calculated the change in their prices. Such fluctuation reflects the quality of tokens selected by exchanges. We can also determine the auditing requirements of exchanges for projects from the number of newly listed tokens.

This industry is still at an early age. The probability for successful business startups is not very high. Moreover, there isn’t any market regulation and the cost of entry is low enough that there is little to stop a flood of low quality projects from entering. This industry will be largely affected as it pursues sound development. To avoid being the driving force of suspicious speculative projects, exchanges should conduct full investigations on new projects and establish strict auditing guidelines on to-be-listed tokens in order to create a series of safe protection mechanisms for investors. Investors should also realize that at least 90% of new projects will fail, especially in markets that are not mature. Besides profits, investments might also lead to loss.

Definition and Evaluation Method

This list focuses on the quality of new tokens listed in February. It is targeted at new tokens listed on every exchange in December, 2017 and examines the price change of these tokens in the two months since they were listed. New tokens refer to those that have been traded less than 180 days.

We will check the market price of such tokens at the beginning of the first three months, calculate their price fluctuations, and then compute the average of these fluctuations. Taking this average, we will rank these new tokens in a list. Owing to the fact that market quotations remain the same during the same time period, the price of new tokens are affected only by project quality, project popularity, and the project’s investment value. Therefore, the price fluctuation of new tokens can reflect the quality of such tokens and the number of such tokens can also show the auditing requirement of exchanges towards newly listed projects.

Data source: We looked at the market price of these new tokens from Coinmarkcap at 24:00 on January 1st, February 1st and March 1st.

Data processing: According to the results, we calculated each token’s price fluctuations in January and February respectively, as well as the combined fluctuation of these two months. As for exchanges that have listed more than three new tokens, we computed the average fluctuation after deleting the maximum value and the minimum value. As for other exchanges, we calculated the average fluctuation directly.

Note:

1. As we make this list, we don’t calculate profits based on the base price of tokens. We have two reasons: first, the price of new tokens is not the same. Second, even if the price of these tokens remains the same, many investors cannot invest in these tokens for reasons outside of their control. Most investors are able to invest in these tokens only when these tokens can be traded. Therefore, we examine the quality of listed tokens via their price change.

2. We found that most international exchanges only list several mainstream tokens and that these exchanges gave no information on listing new tokens in December, 2017. On the contrary, Bittrex, an exchange with many listed tokens, announced recently that it would take 82 tokens off the shelves. Therefore, investors should be careful when investing in these new tokens.

DarpalRating list of new tokens in February

From the list above, we can see that kucoin, bit-z, LBank, bibox and binance delivered a good performance and are in the front of the pack. In January, the average price rise of LBank was outstanding — although the downward trend in February was very clear, the comprehensive change rate of LBank still tops the list. Ucoin showed a remarkable downward trend in January while, in February, it was among the top of these exchanges as the downward trend weakened. The overall change percentage of Ucoin also rose to the top. As for hitbtc, EXX, zb and BCEX, they all gave a poor performance in these three aspects. Other exchanges showed average performance. Judging by comprehensive change rate, coinw, bjex, OKEX and allcoin perform better than bigone, rightBTC, huobipro, coinegg and gateio. OKEX listed the most tokens (28 tokens).

Asian exchanges have been most actively listing new coins, while western exchanges such as Poloniex, Bittrex, GDAX, WEX, Kraken, bitFlyer, quoinex, Bithumb, bitstamp and Bitfinex only list main tokens that have top market values. They are very cautious when listing new tokens and they give no relevant information. Bittrex, an exchange with many tokens, recently announced that it would stop trades on 82 tokens at the end of March, 2018. At the same time, huobipro also plans to remove the tokens of projects that lack liquidity or fall into difficulties. It is now asking for the advice of its users. Here is the announcement from huobipro:

Exchanges are listed respectively as follows:

Tips: We don’t mean to recommend tokens whose price has risen.

KuCoin

Website: kucoin.com

This platform has plenty of tokens. Compared with other exchanges in December, Kucoin listed 13 tokens whose market price looked promising in the beginning. As the market was falling, it was reassuring that the price of PRL, PHOC and R still rose by more than 150% in two months. However, the price of ELIX fell by nearly 60%.

Here are the statistics:

Note: The first column of this table contains the abbreviations of tokens newly listed on KuCoin. The second, third and fourth column of this table include the price of tokens at 24:00 on January 1st, February 1st and March 1st respectively. The fifth, sixth, seventh column contain price fluctuations of January (from January 1st to February 1st), February (from February 1st to March 1st) and the overall fluctuations (from January 1st to March 1st). The red numbers in this table refer to the maximum and minimum change percentage which have been deleted when we are calculating the average value.

Bit-Z

Website: bit-z.com

Bit-z.com lists many tokens and provides many investment choices for people. In September, 2017, it listed GXS project of GXB, a blockchain data exchange. In December, Bit-z.com only listed 5 new tokens, including ARN whose market price increased by 150% and PYLNT and HWC whose market price decreased by 50%. However, the average price change was very remarkable.

Here are the statistics:

LBank

Website: lbank.info

LBank has listed several main tokens while at the same time continuing to seek out quality projects. In December, this exchange only listed 3 tokens, all of which led to good investment returns in January. However, in February, the price of tokens plunged. These tokens delivered a good performance from the perspective of overall price fluctuations.

Here are the statistics:

Bibox

Website: bibox.com

On this exchange, except for SBTC (a forked token), tokens performed very well with their comprehensive price fluctuations at the top. HPB catches our attention, as its price increased by 916.5% in January. Though the price fell in February, it was still nearly 6 times greater than the price before. Investors should be careful when investing in tokens on Bibox because HPB and SBTC, both of whose price fell greatly, are listed on this exchange.

Here are the statistics:

U-COIN

Website: uncoinex.com

According to our previous reports, Ucoin is an exchange that focuses on non-mainstream tokens. In December, Ucoin listed 18 new tokens. However, those listed tokens differed greatly by price fluctuations. The price of 4 tokens increased greatly and the price of half of these tokens decreased by 65%. The price of LDC even fell to zero.

Here are the statistics:

BINANCE

Website: binance.com

Binance has listed 12 new tokens. Though this exchange doesn’t rank first among all exchanges, in terms of quality of newly listed tokens, it remains one of the top exchanges in the industry. That means Binance is trust-worthy when selecting new tokens. CND, GTO and ELF performed well, as their price kept increasing during a market downturn. However, the price of both BRD and TNB fell by more than 50%. It is worth mentioning that Binance has launched an activity — -listing new tokens through voting. And Binance will not hesitate to refuse listing to those projects that add votes themselves.

Here are the statistics:

Coinw

Website: coinw.com

There are only 27 tokens now on this exchange. In December, 5 tokens were newly listed and their market performances were average. HPY performed well, with a price increase of 48.1% while DEW was the opposite with a price decrease of 50.5%.

Here are the statistics:

BJEX

Website: bjex.com

HPY, the token that has done well on Coinw, also gave a good performance on Bjex. The price of HPY rose by 48.1% while the price of both HLD and LEEK decreased by 60%. Bjex delivered a good performance on the whole because it only listed 3 new tokens.

Here are the statistics:

OKEX

Website: okex.com

There are many tokens on OKEX. In December, this exchange listed the largest number of new tokens — 28, one token a day on average. However, the overall price changes of new tokens were just average. The price of 9 new tokens reduced by 50%.

Here are the statistics:

ALLCOIN

Website: allcoin.com

Allcoin has listed 11 new tokens. Out of these, only the price of UIP rose a little. There were 5 tokens whose price decreased by less 25%. This was very reassuring. However, the price of the other 5 tokens reduced by more than 50%. As a result, the price of all new tokens significantly decreased on average, and Allcoin was one of the lowest ranked exchanges.

Here are the statistics:

BigOne

Website: big.one

BigOne, the overseas version of yunbi, started to allow transactions beginning from November, 2017. As transactions on this exchange started later, many tokens were listed in December, among which 18 tokens were still under investigation. This exchange is different from Yunbi, as the former lists tokens frequently while the latter is very cautious when selecting to-be-listed tokens. Newly listed tokens on Big.one showed ordinary performance in the market during these two months. The price of 7 such tokens reduced by more than 50%. Two forked tokens — — SBTC and BCD — — witnessed the most notable price decline — — 91.2% and 79.1%.

Here are the statistics:

RightBTC

Website：rightbtc.com

RightBTC only listed two tokens — GOD and MVC — in December. The price of these two tokens fell significantly, 50% on average.

Here are the statistics:

Huobi.pro

Website：huobi.pro

According to the data we gathered, huobi.pro delivered a poor performance on token listing in December. The price of new tokens fell an average 52% during these two months. Surprisingly, the price of half of these tokens decreased by more than 65%. Of course, three forked tokens of Bitcoin — — BIFI, BCX and SBTC — — witnessed the most notable price decline.

Here are the statistics:

COINEGG

Website：coinegg.com

Coinegg also performed poorly on token listing. In these two months, its overall price decline reached 52.9%. Among 7 newly listed tokens, 3 were forked tokens of Bitcoin and their price decreased drastically in these two months.

Here are the statistics:

Gate.io

Gate.io, the overseas edition of Bter.com, listed 11 tokens in December, among which 5 were forked tokens of Bitcoin. The price of these 5 tokens all declined by more than 70%. MDS delivered the best performance with a price that grew to 4 times its January price and remained stable during February.

Here are the statistics:

HitBTC

Website：hitbtc.com

HitBTC has listed many tokens and there are many trade pairs on this exchange. In December, HitBTC listed 3 new tokens, among which CAPP has since been removed. This shows that this exchange is not rigorous when verifying new tokens. The price of WRC and DIM fluctuated greatly, especially DIM, the price of which decreased by 95.9% after two months and drew near to zero.

Here are the statistics:

EXX

Website：exx.com

The price of tokens listed on EXX is far from satisfying. This exchange has listed 13 tokens and the average price decline reached 66.6%. Other than LBTC and QBT, tokens saw their price decrease by more than 50%. The price of 4 tokens even declined by more than 80%.

Here are the statistics:

Website: zb.com

ZB delivered a poor performance in token listing. In January, the average decline reached 51% — in February, this trend continued. The overall decline came to 71.7%, a remarkable percentage. In December only 5 new tokens were listed on ZB but the price of all five fell more than 60%.

Here are the statistics:

BCEX

Website：bcex.top

BCEX, the international exchange, belongs to the top exchanges in terms of total trade volume. In December, it listed 10 new tokens, among which 6 were forked tokens. That means this exchange has listed the largest number of forked tokens. ELF and CMT performed well. The price of the other 8 tokens decreased by more than 60% in two months. The price of two forked tokens — — FBTC and BCK — — almost fell near zero.

Here are the statistics:

Risk warning

The major international exchanges haven’t listed new tokens. Either foreign exchanges are very cautious when listing new tokens or they have not found any quality tokens worth listing. Tokens listed on these exchanges are those with the most market value, widest recognition, and best liquidity. Looking at the price changes of new tokens, we can see that forked tokens suffered significant losses. Therefore, investors should be cautious when investing in any of the new tokens that continue to emerge.

As the market remains the same for all exchanges, and since the price change of new tokens reflects the investment value and the popularity of project, the price change of new tokens in a short period of time represents the quality of new tokens listed on exchanges. At the same time, we can also determine whether these projects are gathering individual users. The number of newly listed tokens, along with their price changes, shows the auditing requirements of exchanges. As there is no effective market supervision inside this industry, exchanges are suggested to fully investigate new projects and establish strict auditing requirements in order to protect the interests of investors.

Though the price change in a short period of time cannot fully reflect the value of tokens, their market price will eventually draw near to their value. Please know that we are not recommending tokens whose price has simply increased the most. In general, besides some necessary marketing hype and regularly published progress on the project, teams should be more genuine in keeping to the promises of their whitepaper and in accepting the test of the market, because only truly competitive projects should be able to survive.