53% of Crypto Tokens Launched Since 2021 Have Failed, Most in 2025 (coindesk.com)
- Reference: 0180609048
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/01/18/0556221/53-of-crypto-tokens-launched-since-2021-have-failed-most-in-2025
- Source link: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/01/14/more-than-half-of-all-crypto-tokens-have-failed-and-most-died-in-2025
"More than half of all cryptocurrencies ever launched are now defunct," [1]reports CoinDesk , citing a new analysis by cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko.
And most of those failures occurred in 2025:
> The study looked at token listings on GeckoTerminal between mid-2021 and the end of 2025. Of the nearly 20.2 million tokens that entered the market during that period, 53.2% are no longer actively traded. A staggering 11.6 million of those failures happened in 2025 alone — accounting for 86.3% of all token deaths over the past five years.
>
> One key driver behind the surge in dead tokens was the rise of low-effort memecoins and experimental projects launched via crypto launchpads like pump.fun, CoinGecko analyst Shaun Paul Lee said. These platforms lowered the barrier to entry for token creation, leading to a wave of speculative assets with little or no development backing. Many of these tokens never made it past a handful of trades before disappearing.
[1] https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/01/14/more-than-half-of-all-crypto-tokens-have-failed-and-most-died-in-2025
Well, there is one very successful crypto scheme (Score:2)
And it is run by the president of the land of the brave, the home of the free.
If you need a pardon, or some other service, like removing a regulation, etc, you negotiate the price, buy some of his memecoins and voila, the government gets it done.
Re: (Score:3)
I dunno, it seems the grifter [1]keeps on delivering. [apnews.com]
[1] https://apnews.com/article/trump-pardons-donor-twice-convicted-fraud-99263a04b8a60ce8c081b9c5feaffd2e
Grifters be griftin' (Score:2)
> More than half of all cryptocurrencies ever launched are now defunct.
Suckers.
It's said a sucker is born every minute but that clearly underestimates the size of the sucker pool.
Nothing new (Score:2)
The ICO days of 2017-2020/2021 produced a lot of now-dead projects as well. When people can just fork and launch memecoins, there's plenty of incentive to take a shot at being the next PEPE. All you need is enough cash for an exchange listing fee.
Re: (Score:2)
Please tell me, what percentage of Silicon Valley startups survived in this time frame, what percentage of "new media" outfits made it through this time, and which restaurants opened and stayed open. This is really nothing new. This is, how capitalism is supposed to work: present idea, find initial funding, see, whether you can make money with this. Fail early, fail often, find your path to success.
You realize, that most web startups from late 90ies went up in smoke, but you'll agree, that the web is here t
Good (Score:3)
People need to be educated on imaginary money, ponzi schemes, and false returns.
Not "tokens" (Score:2)
Just pump-and-dump schemes, like the vast majority of cryptocurrencies are.
A meaningful currency would be nice... (Score:2)
It would be nice if we could get a cryptocurrency with true anonymity like Monero, ability to prune the blockchain so only the minimum transactions have to be kept, and so the blockchain never constantly grows, supports "taxes", where when Alice sends Bob one unit of the coin, a tenth of the unit is created and sent to Charlie who is the government tax office. This way, taxes are paid automatically (although in an inflationary manner).
Would be nice to see more experimental coins, and not just pump/dump stu
Re: (Score:2)
Your taxes idea is compatible with any smart contract but it will be a barrier to adoption. Why would I use a stablecoin that taxes me when there are ones that don't?
Ha ha ha, I invested in ugly monkey picture NTFs (Score:2)
They are cryptomagically blockchained so no way they are able to fail like these fake tokens.
Since I don't legally own the picture, I printed out the NFT QR code and put it above my couch, which is a real vintage bull leather couch by the way.
All my best friends are so jealous and take pictures over my couch all the time.
But did they? (Score:2)
If the point of most of these cryptos was for their creators to jump on the hype train and make a quick cash crab, and those creators successfully executed an exit strategy to dump their crypto product somewhere near its peak - then those cryptos were a success; they did not fail in their intended purpose.
That number seems way too low. (Score:2)
I've personally launched at least 5 ( A bunch of reeeeaaal duds).
We were right about that (Score:2)
And we're all going to be right about AI.
Re: We were right about that (Score:3)
Clearly AIs on the way out. They're restarting the crypto stories! AI bubble confirmed.
Re: (Score:1)
Owww, you made me snort my Corn flakes.