Crypto crash: Half of minted cryptocurrencies no longer exist
Cryptocurrencies: The Wild West Of Digital Money
It seems like the wild, wild west all over again as the unpredictable world of cryptocurrencies continues to draw investors, hopeful newcomers, and shady scoundrels. CoinGecko, the crypto market aggregator, exposes a staggering statistic: a whopping 52% of all cryptocurrencies minted since 2021 have gone the way of the dodo, leaving the market with about 3.7 million failed projects. Unfortunately, this means that 1.8 million tokens bit the dust in mere Q1 of 2025 alone, representing 49.7% of all recorded cryptocurrency deaths.
Theikateful market gurus suspect the sharp decline in token survivability might be closely linked to the broader rollercoaster turbulence, particularly following the inauguration of the one-and-only Donald Trump in January 2025. This event marked the beginning of a cryptocurrency market downturn, as if the economy and the stock market weren't already shitting the bed hard enough.
In the span of just a few years, the total number of crypto projects has skyrocketed, reaching 6.9 million in 2025 from a paltry 428,383 in 2021. Why the dramatic increase? Simple: the emergence of pumf.fun, the happens-to-be-the-best token creation platform out there that made it as easy as pie to launch a new crypto token. Lower costs and ease of entry led to a flood of low-quality meme coins clogging up the crypto scene.
Nearly 1.4 million projects failed in 2024, accounting for 37.7% of all failures over the past five years. But here's the catch: 2024 also saw the highest number of new crypto launches, with a staggering 3 million new tokens storming the crypto shores. Talk about a pissing contest in the freakin' digital wild west!
During the periods between 2021 and 2023, projects failures accounted for 'bout 12.6% of all crypto failures over the past five years. The lessons to be learned here? Anyone can play cowboy in the crypto world, but not everyone's gonna make it to retirement without a bullet wound.
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Cryptocurrency: An Unregulated Wilderness
Oksana Kuznetsova, Journalist
Several factors have contributed to the high number of crypto project failures between 2021 and 2025, particularly in 2024 and Q1 of 2025:
Why the Crypto Plains are Bloody
- Market Volatility: The rollercoaster-like price swings in the crypto market have left many investors with burned fingers, battered egos, and a good case of the heebie-jeebies. These crazy market fluctuations have significantly eroded investor confidence, leading to a high abandonment rate of projects[1][2]. Broader economic factors, such as tariff threats and recession fears, have added gasoline to the fire[3].
- The Great Token Gold Rush: Thanks to platforms like Pump.fun, anyone with a pulse and an internet connection could launch a new crypto token with ease. This has led to an influx of low-effort, speculative tokens with little utility, leading to a huge number of flops that couldn't keep up with the competition[4][5].
- Trump's Economy: The inauguration of Donald Trump as US President in January 2025 and subsequent economic uncertainties contributed to market instability, further impacting the survival of crypto projects[2][3].
- The Crypto Wild West: The crypto market experienced a surge in new tokens, many of which were poorly conceptualized and focused on generating hype instead of offering real-world solutions. This led to high failure rates as investors lost interest or as projects failed to deliver on their promises[4][5].
- I Spy: The lack of robust regulation and oversight in the crypto world allowed for the proliferation of scammy, low-quality projects that couldn't survive in the long run due to a lack of sustainability or legitimacy[5].
These factors combined make for one mean ol' crypto landscape filled with snakes, bandits, and grey-haired prospectors on the hunt for digital gold.
The high number of crypto project failures can be attributed to the unregulated nature of the industry, which has allowed for the proliferation of scammy, low-quality projects that lack sustainability or legitimacy. Furthermore, the easy access to token creation platforms like Pump.fun has led to an influx of low-effort, speculative tokens with little utility, exacerbating the problem in the digital frontier of finance and technology.
