Crypto Tokens Fail: 3.7 Million Lost Since 2021 Amid Market Turbulence

Research indicates over 3.7 million cryptocurrency tokens have failed since 2021, with nearly half of these failures occurring in 2024 and early 2025 during the Pump.fun meme coin craze. The rapid rise in new token listings has contributed to these numbers, revealing market turbulence and volatility in the crypto landscape.

The cryptocurrency sector has faced a staggering collapse, with over 3.7 million tokens reportedly failing since 2021. Research from GeckoTerminal highlights that nearly half of these failures occurred during the recent memecoin craze spurred by Pump.fun, which has drawn attention to the fragility of many digital assets.

A staggering 1.8 million tokens failed in just the first quarter of 2025 alone, making it 49.7% of all token failures recorded since 2021. The issues peaked in late 2024, when nearly 1.4 million projects ceased operations, contributing to 37.7% of the failures. Together, these years significantly mark the downfall of many crypto projects in the market.

Researchers from GeckoTerminal suggest that this dramatic plunge in the survival rate of tokens coincides with wider market disturbances. This appears especially relevant following Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, which marked a notable downturn across the crypto landscape.

Interestingly, the number of new cryptocurrency projects has also surged over this period. In 2021, approximately 428,000 tokens were launched on crypto price aggregator platforms. However, by 2025, that figure skyrocketed to nearly seven million. Much of this increase is linked to the introduction of Pump.fun in 2024, making token creation easier than ever, thus resulting in a torrent of low-effort and meme-focused projects.

In the years leading up to Pump.fun’s launch, the landscape was drastically different. Between 2021 and 2023, token failures stayed within the low six digits. This period accounted for only 12.6% of total token deaths, indicating that the influx of new projects since 2024 has led to a drastic rise in market instability.

Importantly, GeckoTerminal clarifies its definition of “dead tokens” as those that are no longer being traded. Tokens included in this classification are those that have had at least one trade before their downfall, which further illustrates the temporary nature of many projects in the cryptocurrency space.