Crypto Exchange Crypto.com Holds Over $920M Worth of Memecoins

Singapore-based exchange Crypto.com holds over $920 million worth of memecoins for its customers as of Monday, representing more than 15% of the exchange

Crypto.com, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, is notably holding a large share of memecoins among its customers' token reserves, which total nearly $6 billion, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen.

As of Monday, Crypto.com had over $920 million worth of memecoins for its customers, which amounts to more than 15% of the exchange’s entire token reserves. Of this amount, 12% or $718 million comes from dog-inspired memecoin SHIB, while 2% or $124 million is from frog-based memecoin PEPE. Additionally, several other memecoins, such as FLOKI, LADYS, and MOG, together account for 1% or $82 million of Crypto.com's onchain portfolio.

Two of Crypto.com's top five holdings are memecoins, according to data from Nansen. (Nansen)

notably, two of Crypto.com’s top five holdings are memecoins, with SHIB being the third-largest holding and PEPE being the fifth-largest. After BTC and ETH, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, Crypto.com holds more SHIB in dollar terms than any other token.

Interestingly, in Nov. 2020, Crypto.com held nearly $3 billion in reserves, of which about 20% or $558 million was SHIB. This signifies a significant increase in the exchange's memecoin holdings over the past two years.

“All customer assets held on our platform are fully backed (1:1), safely stored and available for redemption,” states the webpage for Crypto.com, which did not immediately respond to Unchained’s request for further comments.

Crypto.com's large share of memecoin holdings is “quite eye-opening,” according to @Ponyongmi, who has been trading crypto since 2020. “It shows they’re betting aggressively on these high-risk, high-reward tokens, mirroring the attitude many young people in the industry have towards investing,” they said.

“Crypto.com is meme-forward, and they list memecoins generally a lot earlier on than other exchanges,” MOG accelerationist @Virotechnics told Unchained over Telegram. “Retail continues to prefer trading memes over most other sectors this cycle, and listing these projects early on is a risk that they take but ultimately something that can be very rewarding for them and their users alike.”

Binance and Gemini Comparisons

In comparison to Crypto.com, Binance, which has a token reserve valued at $102.9 billion, does not have any memecoins among its top 10 holdings. However, PEPE and SHIB do appear in the eleventh and twelfth positions, respectively, together accounting for nearly $2.15 billion or 2.08% of all cryptocurrencies on Binance.

While Crypto.com has a higher proportion of memecoins relative to its entire reserves, Binance is ultimately holding a greater absolute dollar value in memecoins. Notably, Binance also holds $521 million worth of PEOPLE, BONK, and FLOKI.

Meanwhile, rival US-regulated exchange Gemini, in comparison to both Crypto.com and Binance, not only holds fewer memecoins, but also has a smaller share of memecoins in relation to its total reserves.

Specifically, PEPE and SHIB are the fifth and sixth most liquid cryptocurrencies on Gemini, respectively making up a combined 1.1% of the exchange’s total holdings, which total roughly $70.6 million.

“I believe we’ll hit a peak when casinos start integrating memecoin trading on their floors and when large loans backed by memecoins start getting liquidated. Given the current trend, another centralized exchange collapsing due to excessive risk-taking wouldn’t surprise me,” added @Ponyongmi.

Users on Crypto.com can engage in margin trading with at most 10x leverage for over 200 pairs. Notably, DOGE and SHIB are among the eligible collateral for those who wish to margin trade, as per the exchange’s website.