2026-01-15 03:30:07

A phenomenon worth noting is that by 2025, more than half of all crypto tokens have become completely defunct.

Most of these tokens originate from low-threshold launch platforms like pump.fun. Data shows that from mid-2021 to the end of 2025, out of nearly 20.2 million tokens introduced to the market, 13.4 million have already been wiped out. The most staggering is that in just 2025 alone, 11.6 million tokens failed—accounting for 86.3% of the total failed tokens over the past five years.

Why are there so many? The main reason is quite simple. Low-cost meme coins and experimental projects are everywhere, rapidly emerging through various launch platforms. These platforms lower the barrier to creating tokens to the minimum, resulting in anything being issued—without development support, without real applications, purely speculative assets. Some tokens even disappear after just a few trades.

The most terrifying is the last three months of 2025. 7.7 million tokens failed—equivalent to 35% of the projects that failed since 2021 collapsing within just 12 weeks. This major crash was immediately followed by the cascade liquidation on October 10, when $19 billion in leveraged positions were wiped out in a single day.

To understand how exaggerated this scale is, look at historical comparisons: in 2021, only 2,584 projects failed for the entire year. By 2024, that number had skyrocketed to over 1.3 million. And by 2025? An explosive growth. These figures are from projects that have actually been traded, fully illustrating how the open mechanism of cryptocurrency makes it easy for the market to become overly saturated.

View Original

This page may contain third-party content, which is provided for information purposes only (not representations/warranties) and should not be considered as an endorsement of its views by Gate, nor as financial or professional advice. See Disclaimer for details.

6 Likes

Reward
6
5
Repost
Share

Comment

0/400

ApeShotFirst

· 11h ago

Damn, 11.6 million tokens just died in a year? This pump.fun is definitely harvesting, directly treating retail investors as cash cows to be cut.

View OriginalReply0

gas_fee_trauma

· 11h ago

Damn, pump.fun is really a slaughterhouse. They kill 11.6 million tokens a year and no one cares.

View OriginalReply0

digital_archaeologist

· 11h ago

Damn, 11.6 million? Thank goodness pump.fun lowered the barrier... --- It's pump.fun's fault again. Really need to regulate it properly. --- Wait, 86.3% by 2025? What the hell? That's crazy. --- I knew it. These project teams never think long-term. They're just here to cut the leeks. --- A naked speculative feast. No applications, yet they dare to issue tokens. --- 7.7 million collapsed within three months. What a terrifying figure... --- In 2021, there were only 2,584. The current comparison is really outrageous. --- Low-threshold platforms should take the blame. They've included all the trash coins. --- No wonder so many rug pulls and exits recently. Turns out there are so many failures. --- Liquidation cascades directly wiped out 19 billion in leverage, and then the project was doomed. --- Over-saturation is indeed a problem. The era where anyone can issue tokens should come to an end.

View OriginalReply0

MEVHunterZhang

· 11h ago

Wow, pump.fun has completely cleaned up the crypto space this year. That's why I stopped touching those zero-threshold things long ago—purely for harvesting profits. 90% of the coins are released just to scam a wave; no wonder making money is so hard.

View OriginalReply0

0xSherlock

· 11h ago

Damn, pump.fun has been a slaughterhouse this year. Dead coins piled up into mountains, does no one care? 11.6 million tokens vanished into thin air, it's unbelievable. That's why I never touch meme coins again, it's too tragic. So 90% of coins are just pure scams? I should have known. The bottom-fishing guys are probably going to suffer heavy losses this time haha. The open mechanism has turned into an open trap, who will fill it? That wave of liquidation in Q4 was truly incredible, one sentence destroyed three months of dreams. Where is the promised decentralization? Why is no one willing to take responsibility? This data is suffocating to look at, is anyone still rushing in?

View OriginalReply0