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.<\/p>\n
Since 2021, nearly 7 million cryptocurrencies have been listed on CoinGecko\u2019s token tracking tool GeckoTerminal, and over half, or 3.7 million tokens, \u201chave since stopped trading and are considered failed,\u201d CoinGecko research analyst Shaun Paul Lee said in an April 30 report<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAlarmingly, the first quarter of 2025 alone saw the collapse of 1.8 million tokens,\u201d he added, which is \u201cthe highest number of failures recorded in a single year.\u201d It also comprises just under half of all failures and represents a quarter of all tokens launched since 2021.<\/p>\n CoinGecko recorded tokens with at least one trade before going defunct and only Pump.fun tokens that graduated, or completed the token creation platform\u2019s bonding curve.<\/p>\n There are more crypto tokens than ever, but many are failing to survive in the long term. Source: <\/em>CoinGecko<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Lee linked the recent token die-off to \u201cbroader market turbulence\u201d after Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration in January, which saw Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>) hit a peak high but was followed by a sharp downturn in the crypto market.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Lee attributed the ballooning number of tokens and their failures to the token creation tool<\/a> Pump.fun, \u201cwhich simplified the process of creating tokens, leading to a flood of memecoins and low-effort projects entering the market.\u201d<\/p>\n Pump.fun went online in January 2024. CoinGecko\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore 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,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n Prior to 2024, crypto token failure rates were relatively low. Source: <\/em>CoinGecko\u00a0<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Pump.fun\u2019s graduation rate, where token trading moves off the site, has never been particularly high<\/a>, with roughly 98% of tokens failing.\u00a0<\/p>\n The platform\u2019s best-performing week so far was in November 2024, when 1.67% of memecoins moved on to the open market.<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>AI tokens, memecoins dominate crypto narratives in Q1 2025: CoinGecko<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n CoinGecko founder Bobby Ong said in a March 6 report<\/a> that memecoin investor interest appears to have cooled after a series of bad launches, noting the fallout from the Libra (LIBRA)<\/a> token launch.<\/p>\n Pump.fun had a weekly trading volume high<\/a> after the launch of Trump\u2019s memecoin<\/a> on Jan. 18, but both crypto and stock markets were hit with extreme volatility starting in March following Trump\u2019s threats of sweeping tariffs.<\/p>\nMore crypto tokens used to survive\u00a0<\/h2>\n