In the crypto world, where dreams of quick riches mix with the brutal reality of the market, a report has just come out that is shaking the industry. CoinGecko, one of the largest crypto data aggregators, has published an analysis showing how many digital currency projects have reached the end of their lifespan. The results are staggering: more than half of all cryptocurrencies on GeckoTerminal have collapsed, and 2025 proved to be a real massacre for tokens. Is this the end of the memecoin era, or just a warning for investors? Let’s take a closer look at what the report reveals.
The CoinGecko report focuses on data from 2021–2025 and analyzes cryptocurrencies listed on GeckoTerminal that stopped being actively traded after at least one transaction. The study covers tokens that „fell out” of the market, including those launched on platforms such as pump.fun. The key finding? As many as 53.2% of all cryptocurrencies on that platform were classified as dead. This means that out of the millions of projects that launched, most never achieved success.
The most shocking numbers are broken down by year. Here they are:
- 2021: 2,584 dead tokens
- 2022: 213,075 dead tokens
- 2023: 245,049 dead tokens
- 2024: 1,382,010 dead tokens
- 2025: As many as 11,564,909 dead tokens!
In fact, 2025 accounts for 86.3% of all failures in the period studied. In total, from 2021 to 2025, around 13.4 million projects failed, while the number of cryptocurrencies on the market grew from 428 thousand in 2021 to nearly 20.2 million in 2025. Notably, the fourth quarter of 2025 was especially catastrophic – 7.7 million tokens „died” in that period, accounting for 34.9% of all failures.
Why are so many cryptocurrencies dying? The report points to several main reasons. First, market turbulence, including events such as the „liquidation cascade” of October 10, 2025, when positions worth 19 billion dollars were liquidated within 24 hours – the largest one-day deleveraging in crypto history. Second, the explosion of memecoins and easy token-creation tools, such as launchpads like pump.fun, which enabled the mass launch of low-quality projects. Many of them are simply speculative bubbles that burst at the first wave of declines. Before 2024, failures were at the level of low six-figure numbers, but after pump.fun was introduced in 2024, everything changed – the market was flooded with tokens, most of which did not survive.
What does this mean for investors? The report is a warning: the crypto market is extremely volatile, and the memecoin craze can quickly turn into a trap. Before you invest, check the project’s fundamentals – does it have real value, a team and a community? Otherwise, your token may join the millions of „dead souls” of the crypto world.
Source: CoinGecko report
