A Tsunami of Token Deaths: The Crypto Market's Nightmare in 2025
Overabundance of Cryptocurrencies Leads to Decline as 1.8 Million Tokens Cease to Exist in First Quarter of 2025.
The crypto world is reeling from one of its roughest quarters on record, with a staggering 1.8 million tokens biting the dust in the first three months of 2025 alone. Refer to this report for the grim details.
This epic failure spree represents approximately half of all token deaths over the past five years, as per a chilling new study by CoinGecko.
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The report's findings are a grim reminder: almost one in four tokens launched since 2021 no longer exist. The root cause of this mass token extinction can be traced back to a perfect storm brewed by a market correction following Bitcoin's post-inauguration rally in January 2025 and the relentless rise of token makers like Pump.fun. Launched in early 2024, this platform made it simple for anyone to mint coins, even without any coding skills, fueling a frenzy of meme coin mania that overwhelmed cryptocurrency platforms with fly-by-night speculative assets.
CoinGecko has listed approximately 7 million tokens since mid-2021, but their report reveals that 52.7%, which amounts to more than 3.7 million digital currencies, have now ceased trading and officially earned themselves the "failed" label. While the sharp uptick in failures started in 2024, Q1 2025 has been particularly ruthless, claiming at least 1.8 million tokens by March 31.
A Market Meltdown in Crisis Mode
Historically, the rate at which crypto projects collapsed was quite modest. According to CoinGecko's survey, out of more than 428,000 tokens listed in 2021, only 2,584 failed. The number of listed crypto assets expanded to 724,706 in 2022, with failures growing significantly to 213,075. These figures had been consistent through 2023, with 835,183 created and about 245,000 fading away.
However, 2024 saw token creation hit new heights, surpassing the 3 million mark in part due to Pump.fun. This wave of activity made it the major driving force behind Solana's dominance in the decentralized exchange (DEX) market, despite the high number of coins churned out leading to just as many deaths, clocking in at over 1.3 million by the year's end.
2025 seems to be following in 2024's footsteps, with only a mere 117,000 tokens out of the 1.93 million generated in the first quarter of the year still active, leaving a staggering 94% in ashes.
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- The rise of token makers like Pump.fun, which allow anyone to mint coins without coding skills, has contributed to the massive increase in the number of failed digital currencies, with over 3.7 million tokens ceasing trading as of the report dated in 2025.
- The stark reality of the crypto market in 2025 is evident through the statistics from CoinGecko's report, showing that out of the approximately 7 million tokens listed since mid-2021, a significant percentage, almost 53%, have failed and are no longer in trading.
- The relentless rise of Pump.fun, a platform thatcreates havoc among cryptocurrency platforms with fly-by-night speculative assets, has been one of the primary factors leading to the high rate of token failings, particularly in 2024 and 2025, when thousands of digital currencies have vanished from the market.
