Cryptocurrency Oversupply Transforms into a Cemetery as 1.8 Million Tokens Met Their End in Q1 2025
The cryptocurrency market has endured an exceptionally harsh first quarter of 2025, with a shocking 1.8 million tokens biting the dust during these three months alone, according to a grim new report by CoinGecko. This grim statistic accounts for almost half of all token failures in the last five years.
The Token Apocalypse
Now, you might be wondering why possibly one out of every four tokens launched since 2021 is considered extinct. Well, the finger is being pointed at a trend fueled by a market correction following Bitcoin's temporary rally after the 2025 inauguration and the meteoric rise of platforms like Pump.fun, which allows users to mint new coins in mere minutes without the need for coding know-how.
These simplified conditions have created a "meme coin gold rush," inundating crypto platforms and flooding markets with speculative assets that croaked quicker than a canary in a coal mine.
Following the introduction of GeckoTerminal in mid-2021, it has listed a staggering 7 million tokens. But according to the report, about 52.7% of them—that's more than 3.7 million cryptocurrencies—have bit the dust and been classed as "failed." The slide began in earnest in 2024, but Q1 2025 has been a bloodbath, with over 1.8 million tokens vanishing by March 31.
A Market in Peril
Historically, the failure rate of crypto projects has been relatively modest. According to CoinGecko's survey, out of 428,000 tokens listed in 2021, only 2,584 went bankrupt. The number of listed cryptocurrencies climbed to 724,706 in 2022, with failures also on the rise to a significant 213,075. These figures remained relatively steady in 2023, with 835,183 new entries and approximately 245,000 casualties.
However, 2024 saw the number of new projects skyrocket, surpassing the 3 million mark, in part, thanks to Pump.fun. The sheer volume of projects on the platform made it the main driver behind Solana's dominance of the decentralized exchange (DEX) market. Yet, the high number of coins hatched led to just as many casualties, with over 1.3 million meeting their end by the end of that year.
2025 doesn't seem to be easing up, with just over 117,000 tokens out of the 1.93 million launched in the first three months of the year still standing tall, meaning nearly 94% evaporated without a trace.
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While Pump.fun has made minting meme coins a breeze, the absence of clear regulations could leave low-effort projects vulnerable to financial vortexes and make mainstream adoption a more distant dream.
[1] [https://www.coingecko.com/en/reports/the-rise-and-fall-of-instant-tokens-beta][2] [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-31/crypto-market-sees-biggest-quarterly-slump-since-2018][3] [https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/04/07/cryptocurrency-token-failures-hit-record-levels-coingecko-report-shows/][4] [https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/06/record-number-of-crypto-projects-send-their-tokens-to-dead-coin-graveyard.html][5] [https://www.theverge.com/2025/04/07/22997050/crypto-market-crash-token-failures-record-high-coinmarketcap-coingecko]
Standout Statistics (2021-2025)
| Year | Failed Projects | Key Trend ||-------------|-----------------|-------------------------------|| 2021 | 2,584 | Initial growth phase || 2022 | 213,075 | Rapid increase in failures || 2023 | 245,049 | Stabilized failure rate || 2024 | 1,382,010 | Skyrocketing failures || 2025 Q1 | 1,821,549 | An unprecedented crest of failures |
- Despite the trend fueled by platforms like Pump.fun, making it easier for people to mint new coins, over 3.7 million tokens out of the 7 million listed on GeckoTerminal have been classified as "failed" since its introduction in mid-2021.
- The failure rate of crypto projects has skyrocketed, with over 1.8 million tokens vanishing by March 31, 2025, according to a new report by CoinGecko.
- The first quarter of 2025 has been a bloodbath for the cryptocurrency market, with nearly 94% of the 1.93 million tokens launched in the period failing.
- In 2024, over 1.3 million tokens meeting their end by the end of the year, making it a year of unprecedented failures in the cryptocurrency market.
- The report suggests that the failure rate of crypto projects has been relatively modest historically, but it has increased significantly since 2024.
- The absence of clear regulations could leave low-effort projects vulnerable to financial vortexes and make mainstream adoption a more distant dream, especially in light of the recent surge in token failures.
