The cryptocurrency market has seen a concerning rate of project failures in recent years. According to data from CoinGecko, over 50% of all cryptocurrencies ever listed have now become inactive.
Since 2021, nearly 7 million crypto coins have been listed on the platform. Out of these, about 3.7 million projects have ceased trading and are deemed dead. This equates to 52.7% of all cryptocurrencies monitored by CoinGecko, with the majority of these closures occurring in 2024 and early 2025.
2025 Is the Worst Year So Far
In the first three months of 2025 alone, around 1.8 million crypto coins have failed. This is the highest number of project shutdowns in a single year and nearly half of all crypto failures since 2021.
Experts suggest this steep decline in crypto projects could be tied to market difficulties that arose following Donald Trump’s return as President in January 2025, leading to a downturn in crypto prices.
Meme Coins and Quick-Launch Tokens Flood The Market
The total number of crypto projects has also been on the rise in recent times. In 2021, there were about 428,000 projects listed. By 2025, that figure had soared to nearly 7 million. A key factor in this surge was the launch of pump.fun in 2024, a platform that made it exceptionally easy for users to create their own tokens. Consequently, the market was saturated with meme coins and minimal-effort projects, many of which couldn’t sustain themselves.
Prior to 2024, the rate of project failures was far lower. However, with the advent of readily accessible token-generation platforms, the number of shutdowns increased sharply. Along with token failures, major security breaches like the Mantra Crash and Bybit hack have further dented investor trust. The escalating instances of scams, hacks, and project failures highlight the inherent risks within the crypto domain.
