About one in 4 crypto tokens launched since 2021 have failed within the first quarter of this yr amid a crypto market downturn and token creation changing into simpler than ever, says crypto knowledge platform CoinGecko.
Since 2021, practically 7 million cryptocurrencies have been listed on CoinGecko’s token monitoring device GeckoTerminal, and over half, or 3.7 million tokens, “have since stopped buying and selling and are thought of failed,” CoinGecko analysis analyst Shaun Paul Lee mentioned in an April 30 report.
“Alarmingly, the primary quarter of 2025 alone noticed the collapse of 1.8 million tokens,” he added, which is “the best variety of failures recorded in a single yr.” It additionally includes just below half of all failures and represents 1 / 4 of all tokens launched since 2021.
CoinGecko recorded tokens with no less than one commerce earlier than going defunct and solely Pump.enjoyable tokens that graduated, or accomplished the token creation platform’s bonding curve.
Lee linked the latest token die-off to “broader market turbulence” after Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, which noticed Bitcoin (BTC) hit a peak excessive however was adopted by a pointy downturn within the crypto market.
Extra crypto tokens used to outlive
Final yr noticed the second-highest variety of token failures at 1.3 million, and compared, Lee mentioned that the three earlier years had a a lot decrease attrition price.
Lee attributed the ballooning variety of tokens and their failures to the token creation device Pump.enjoyable, “which simplified the method of making tokens, resulting in a flood of memecoins and low-effort initiatives getting into the market.”
Pump.enjoyable went on-line in January 2024. CoinGecko’s report reveals that final yr had the biggest variety of new crypto tokens with over 3 million launched, in comparison with 2023, which noticed simply over 835,000.
“Earlier than the launch of Pump.enjoyable in 2024, cryptocurrency failures numbered within the low six digits. Venture failures between 2021 and 2023 made up simply 12.6% of all cryptocurrency failures over the previous 5 years,” Lee mentioned.
Pump.enjoyable’s commencement price, the place token buying and selling strikes off the positioning, has by no means been notably excessive, with roughly 98% of tokens failing.
The platform’s best-performing week thus far was in November 2024, when 1.67% of memecoins moved on to the open market.
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CoinGecko founder Bobby Ong mentioned in a March 6 report that memecoin investor curiosity seems to have cooled after a sequence of dangerous launches, noting the fallout from the Libra (LIBRA) token launch.
Pump.enjoyable had a weekly buying and selling quantity excessive after the launch of Trump’s memecoin on Jan. 18, however each crypto and inventory markets have been hit with excessive volatility beginning in March following Trump’s threats of sweeping tariffs.
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