Crypto token failures soar, with 1 in 4 launched since 2021 dying in Q1: CoinGecko

About one in four crypto tokens launched since 2021 have failed in the first quarter of this year amid a crypto market downturn and token creation becoming easier than ever, says crypto data platform CoinGecko.
Since 2021, nearly 7 million cryptocurrencies have been listed on CoinGecko’s token tracking tool GeckoTerminal, and over half, or 3.7 million tokens, “have since stopped trading and are considered failed,” CoinGecko research analyst Shaun Paul Lee said in an April 30 report.
“Alarmingly, the first quarter of 2025 alone saw the collapse of 1.8 million tokens,” he added, which is “the highest number of failures recorded in a single year.” It also comprises just under half of all failures and represents a quarter of all tokens launched since 2021.
CoinGecko recorded tokens with at least one trade before going defunct and only Pump.fun tokens that graduated, or completed the token creation platform’s bonding curve.
Lee linked the recent token die-off to “broader market turbulence” after Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, which saw Bitcoin (BTC) hit a peak high but was followed by a sharp downturn in the crypto market.
More crypto tokens used to survive
Last year saw the second-highest number of token failures at 1.3 million, and in comparison, Lee said that the three previous years had a much lower attrition rate.
Lee attributed the ballooning number of tokens and their failures to the token creation tool Pump.fun, “which simplified the process of creating tokens, leading to a flood of memecoins and low-effort projects entering the market.”
Pump.fun went online in January 2024. CoinGecko’s report shows that last year had the largest number of new crypto tokens with over 3 million launched, compared to 2023, which saw just over 835,000.
“Before the launch of Pump.fun in 2024, cryptocurrency failures numbered in the low six digits. Project failures between 2021 and 2023 made up just 12.6% of all cryptocurrency failures over the past five years,” Lee said.
Pump.fun’s graduation rate, where token trading moves off the site, has never been particularly high, with roughly 98% of tokens failing.
The platform’s best-performing week so far was in November 2024, when 1.67% of memecoins moved on to the open market.
Related: AI tokens, memecoins dominate crypto narratives in Q1 2025: CoinGecko
CoinGecko founder Bobby Ong said in a March 6 report that memecoin investor interest appears to have cooled after a series of bad launches, noting the fallout from the Libra (LIBRA) token launch.
Pump.fun had a weekly trading volume high after the launch of Trump’s memecoin on Jan. 18, but both crypto and stock markets were hit with extreme volatility starting in March following Trump’s threats of sweeping tariffs.
Magazine: Memecoins are ded — But Solana ‘100x better’ despite revenue plunge
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 103,872.00
Ethereum (ETH) $ 2,506.46
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00
XRP (XRP) $ 2.39
BNB (BNB) $ 645.84
Solana (SOL) $ 171.22
USDC (USDC) $ 0.999801
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.222663
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.757871
TRON (TRX) $ 0.272611
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 2,503.75
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 103,854.00
Sui (SUI) $ 3.84
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 3,006.60
Chainlink (LINK) $ 15.69
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 23.03
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.290440
Hyperliquid (HYPE) $ 26.80
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000015
Hedera (HBAR) $ 0.194346
LEO Token (LEO) $ 8.70
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 399.38
Toncoin (TON) $ 3.10
Litecoin (LTC) $ 98.42
Polkadot (DOT) $ 4.75
USDS (USDS) $ 0.999885
WETH (WETH) $ 2,506.24
Monero (XMR) $ 340.13
Bitget Token (BGB) $ 5.25
Binance Bridged USDT (BNB Smart Chain) (BSC-USD) $ 1.00
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 2,672.07
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000013
Pi Network (PI) $ 0.742796
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00
Coinbase Wrapped BTC (CBBTC) $ 103,907.00
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 30.34
Bittensor (TAO) $ 421.58
Dai (DAI) $ 0.999911
Uniswap (UNI) $ 5.92
Aave (AAVE) $ 225.35
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 2.77
Aptos (APT) $ 5.19
OKB (OKB) $ 53.18
Jito Staked SOL (JITOSOL) $ 206.32
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.099562
Ondo (ONDO) $ 0.936759
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.111530
BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) $ 1.00
Tokenize Xchange (TKX) $ 35.14
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 5.26
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 18.43
Gate (GT) $ 21.56
Official Trump (TRUMP) $ 12.99
Mantle (MNT) $ 0.735327
VeChain (VET) $ 0.028443
Render (RENDER) $ 4.65
Ethena Staked USDe (SUSDE) $ 1.17
sUSDS (SUSDS) $ 1.05
Ethena (ENA) $ 0.376869
Cosmos Hub (ATOM) $ 4.81
USD1 (USD1) $ 1.00
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.238583
Lombard Staked BTC (LBTC) $ 103,924.00
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 0.764936
Filecoin (FIL) $ 2.87
Algorand (ALGO) $ 0.222662
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.390302
Fasttoken (FTN) $ 4.40
Celestia (TIA) $ 2.66
Worldcoin (WLD) $ 1.13
Sonic (prev. FTM) (S) $ 0.507718
Jupiter Perpetuals Liquidity Provider Token (JLP) $ 4.56
Bonk (BONK) $ 0.000020
Binance-Peg WETH (WETH) $ 2,507.90
First Digital USD (FDUSD) $ 0.999813
Jupiter (JUP) $ 0.511842
Maker (MKR) $ 1,773.18
KuCoin (KCS) $ 11.58
Binance Staked SOL (BNSOL) $ 180.04
Kelp DAO Restaked ETH (RSETH) $ 2,626.45
Quant (QNT) $ 94.11
Story (IP) $ 4.82
Stacks (STX) $ 0.871077
Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) $ 1.28
NEXO (NEXO) $ 1.28
Flare (FLR) $ 0.019293
Sei (SEI) $ 0.230607
EOS (EOS) $ 0.804437
Immutable (IMX) $ 0.660577
Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) $ 1.84
Optimism (OP) $ 0.715023
Injective (INJ) $ 12.05
Rocket Pool ETH (RETH) $ 2,843.34
XDC Network (XDC) $ 0.073062
USDT0 (USDT0) $ 0.999865
Solv Protocol BTC (SOLVBTC) $ 103,843.00
The Graph (GRT) $ 0.110470
dogwifhat (WIF) $ 1.02
FLOKI (FLOKI) $ 0.000097
Mantle Staked Ether (METH) $ 2,672.85