A recent report has unveiled a startling reality in the cryptocurrency space: more than half of all crypto tokens have failed over the past five years. This alarming trend highlights a significant decline in token survivability, particularly noted in the past year.
50% Of Crypto Tokens Have Collapsed
On Wednesday, CoinGecko published a report suggesting that over 50% of the tokens tracked in its Decentralized Exchange (DEX) tracker, GeckoTerminal, have become defunct in this timeframe. The report analyzed a total of crypto tokens that were at some point listed and engaged in trades before ceasing operations.
Since 2021, nearly 7 million tokens have made their way into the DEX tracker, with around 3.7 million now inactive and deemed failures. The findings indicate that a staggering 52.7% of the tokens examined are no longer operational, and of these, approximately 86.5% failed between 2024 and early 2025.
According to the report, notably troubling is the fact that 49.7% of the recorded project failures from July 2021 to March 2025 occurred in the first quarter of this year alone. By March 31, 1.8 million tokens had collapsed, marking this year as having the highest number of failures in a single period.
In 2024, the situation did not improve, with nearly 1.4 million crypto projects failing, which constituted 37.7% of all failures documented during the analyzed duration. The percentage of failing projects has grown exponentially, jumping from a mere 0.5% in 2021 to a concerning 25% in the first three months of 2025.
Despite this disheartening information, CoinGecko highlighted that 2024 witnessed an unprecedented surge in launches, with over 3 million new projects entering the cryptocurrency market. Since 2021, the total number of projects has soared by about 1,550%, increasing from 428,383 listed endeavors on GeckoTerminal to nearly 7 million crypto projects.
Memecoin Frenzy Responsible For Most Failures?
The enormous rise in token launches has predominantly been attributed to the introduction of the Solana-based memecoin launchpad Pump.fun, which has significantly simplified the deployment process for tokens. This platform’s emergence led to an influx of meme coins and low-effort projects inundating the market.
Throughout this memecoin boom, numerous PolitiFi tokens, celebrity-associated tokens, and outright scam tokens have entered the market, with many achieving substantial market capitalizations within remarkably short periods.
The report indicates that prior to Pump.fun’s inception, crypto failures were relatively modest, accounting for only 12.6% of all dead tokens from 2021 to 2023. However, by July 2024, reports showed that many celebrity-themed memecoins had plummeted over 90% since their launch, leaving the majority effectively “dead.”
Amid the market retraces in Q1, numerous cryptocurrencies have experienced notable price declines, with even the most resilient tokens reaching monthly and yearly lows.
The recent nosedive in token survivability appears to correlate with market exhaustion and turbulence, particularly in conjunction with the unveiling of the official TRUMP and MELANIA memecoins and the LIBRA token scandal.
In conclusion, the report suggests that this pronounced decline in token viability may stem from broader market instabilities, particularly around the time of Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, which coincided with a downturn in the cryptocurrency marketplace.
