Over Half of All Cryptocurrencies Have Failed, CoinGecko Data Shows

More than half of all cryptocurrencies ever launched are now defunct, with the majority of these failures occurring in 2025, according to a new analysis by CoinGecko. The findings highlight the growing risks of market saturation, low-quality token launches, and speculative excess within the crypto ecosystem.

The study analyzed token listings on GeckoTerminal from mid-2021 through the end of 2025. During that period, nearly 20.2 million crypto tokens entered the market. Of those, approximately 53.2%, or more than 10.7 million tokens, are no longer actively traded. Most strikingly, 11.6 million tokens failed in 2025 alone, accounting for 86.3% of all cryptocurrency failures recorded over the past five years.

CoinGecko analyst Shaun Paul Lee attributed the sharp increase in dead tokens to the explosive growth of low-effort memecoins and experimental crypto projects. Many of these assets were launched through crypto launchpads such as pump.fun, which dramatically lowered the barriers to token creation. While this open-access model encouraged innovation, it also led to a flood of speculative tokens with little development, weak fundamentals, and no long-term viability. A large number of these tokens disappeared after only a few trades.

The fourth quarter of 2025 proved especially damaging. In just three months, 7.7 million tokens failed, representing roughly 35% of all crypto project collapses since 2021. This wave of failures followed the October 10 liquidation cascade, when approximately $19 billion in leveraged crypto positions were wiped out in a single day. The event, described by Lee as the largest deleveraging episode in crypto history, severely impacted markets that were already heavily exposed to short-term speculation.

For context, only 2,584 crypto projects failed in 2021. That figure rose sharply to more than 1.3 million in 2024 before surging dramatically in 2025. CoinGecko’s data counted projects that recorded at least one active trade before going dormant, underscoring how quickly crypto’s permissionless design can lead to oversupply and rapid project failure.