According to the CoinGecko report, a quarter of the cryptocurrencies launched since 2021 failed solely in the first quarter of 2025.
The cryptocurrency sector witnessed an unprecedented wave of token bankruptcies in the first quarter of 2025. CoinGecko's new report revealed that 1.8 million tokens were completely deactivated during this period, which corresponds to a quarter of all tokens launched since 2021.
According to data shared by CoinGecko analyst Shaun Paul Lee, 7 million cryptocurrencies have been tracked on GeckoTerminal since 2021, and more than 3.7 million of these have been removed from the market by ceasing trading. The first quarter of 2025 alone accounts for nearly half of these failures, ringing alarm bells for the sector.
The Pump.fun effect is significant!
One of the most significant reasons for the extraordinary failure rate in cryptocurrency projects is attributed to the token creation platform Pump.fun. Launched at the beginning of 2024, Pump.fun has led to a significant increase in the number of low-quality projects by simplifying the token creation processes. Approximately 98% of the tokens created on Pump.fun are withdrawn from the market without achieving lasting success.
The highest failure figures were recorded in 2024 with 1.3 million tokens, while in 2023 this number was only around 835 thousand. Especially the sharp fluctuations in the market following Donald Trump's assumption of the presidency at the beginning of 2025 brought about a significant increase in the number of these failures.
The high proportion of failed tokens among the total on Pump.fun indicates that investors need to be cautious. CoinGecko founder Bobby Ong points out that investor interest in especially memecoin projects has decreased following bad experiences like Libra (LIBRA).