In 2025, Crypto tokens listed on major exchanges have generally struggled to maintain positive price performance, with weakness observed regardless of listing location.
This performance has heightened the debate about whether traditional buy-and-hold strategies still work in today’s crypto environment.
Binance, Coinbase, DEX: Listing in 2025 will be a struggle across the board
According to CryptoRank data, from January 1 to December 31, 2025, Binance listed 100 tokens, of which 93 were trading in the red. The median return on investment (ROI) for tokens listed on Binance was 0.22x. This indicates that a typical newly listed altcoin has lost a significant portion of its value.
Bybit listed 150 tokens during the period, 127 tokens recorded declines, and the median ROI was 0.23x. MEXC, which led the listing activity with 878 new tokens, reported that 747 tokens traded in the red, with a median ROI of 0.21x.
Although some exchanges had relatively strong results, declines still prevailed. Coinbase listed 111 tokens, 94 of which had low trading prices, with a median ROI of 0.43x, the highest among the major centralized exchanges.
The Kraken followed a similar pattern. Even though most of the newly listed tokens ended in negative territory, the median ROI was 0.30x. It is also worth noting that many tokens were common across multiple exchanges. This suggests that performance was driven by broader market conditions rather than listing location.
CryptoRank pointed out that this trend is not limited to centralized platforms. In a separate analysis, the firm looked at listing performance on HyperLiquid, a major perpetual decentralized exchange, and found similar results.
“Given the recent FUD regarding @binance and its listing performance, we compared the results using @HyperliquidX’s public API data and the results were nearly identical. It’s clear that we see similar patterns across exchanges, so it seems like the exchange is not solely to blame,” the post reads.
Median listing performance of Binance and Hyperliquid. Source: X/CryptoRank
Does buy-and-hold still make sense in today’s crypto market?
CryptoRank analyzed that much of the poor performance is due to the huge scale of token issuance in 2025. More than 11 million new tokens entered the market that year, many of which the platform described as “low quality.” The post added:
“Maybe 2025 wasn’t the best time to ‘buy and hold.’”
This raises broader questions about the future of passive investment strategies. According to market data, the crypto market capitalization in January 2026 will be below $3 trillion, lower than it was at the beginning of 2025 and roughly in line with the previous cycle peak in 2021. The market has lost more than $1 trillion in value since October, highlighting the pressures facing the sector.
This has led investors to increasingly question whether widespread buy-and-hold strategies and dollar-cost averaging will continue to work in this market.
Some analysts argue that changes in market structure have made passive investment strategies less effective. Analyst Aporia suggested that a buy-and-hold strategy would be more effective during the early growth stages, when the crypto asset class was yet to be discovered.
“When this asset class was being discovered, ‘just DCA and hold for the long term’ worked. Now you’re competing with funds, algorithms, and literal scammers who treat your ‘belief’ as exit liquidity. Passive strategies require passive markets. Cryptocurrency is not like that. And holding is not a strategy. It’s the lack of a strategy,” Aporia said.
Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao offered a more nuanced perspective. He clarified that the “buy and hold” principle is not intended to apply to all cryptocurrencies.
“If you ‘buy and hold’ every cryptocurrency ever created, you will see how your portfolio will perform. Just like you bought every internet or AI project/company,” CZ said.
His comments suggest that buy-and-hold may still work, but only for a small subset of high-quality projects, rather than as a broad strategy that applies to all coins.
The post What Token Listing Returns in 2025 Suggest About Buy-and-Hold Investing appeared first on BeInCrypto.
