The crypto industry has witnessed a stunning collapse of over 3.7 million cryptocurrencies since 2021, with 2025 alone accounting for 49.7% of those failures.
Data from GeckoTerminal reveals that the failure rate of listed cryptocurrencies has surged to 52.7%, highlighting an increasingly volatile and oversaturated market.
In Q1 2025, more than 1.8 million tokens vanished from trading platforms—almost equal to all project failures in 2024, which totaled 1.38 million. The timing of these shutdowns aligns with a broader crypto downturn and economic uncertainty that followed President Donald Trump’s return to office in January 2025.
Token Creation Skyrockets — but So Do Failures
The total number of crypto projects has exploded in recent years, jumping from 428,383 in 2021 to nearly 7 million in 2025. This rapid growth is largely driven by pump.fun, a platform that made it easy for users to create meme coins and low-effort tokens with little technical know-how.
However, many of these tokens never made it past a few trades. Most had little to no utility, and many were abandoned or rugged shortly after launch. Of all crypto failures from 2021 to 2025, 88% happened in just the last two years.
Quick Stats on Crypto Deaths (2021–2025)
- 2021: 2,584 failed projects
- 2022: 213,075
- 2023: 245,049
- 2024: 1,382,010
- 2025 (Q1 only): 1,821,549
With nearly 1 in 2 tokens launched in 2025 already dead, the data paints a cautionary picture for new investors and developers. This surge in project deaths also reflects market saturation and speculative excess in a space still seeking regulatory clarity and technological maturity.
Kosta Gushterov
Reporter at Coindoo
Kosta has been a part of the team since 2021 and has solidified his position with a thirst for knowledge, incredible dedication to his work and a “detective-like” mindset. He not only covers a wide range of trending topics, he also creates reviews, PR articles and educational content. His work has also been referenced by other news outlets.
Source: https://coindoo.com/over-3-6-million-cryptocurrencies-have-failed-since-2021/