Crypto graveyard grows: Half of all tokens since 2021 are now inactive
More tokens, more failures
Out of nearly 7 million cryptocurrencies listed on GeckoTerminal since 2021, 3.7 million have ceased trading and are now considered “dead.” Most of these failures occurred in 2024 and early 2025, following the launch of the meme token generator Pump.fun.
According to a GeckoTerminal study, 52.7% of all tokens launched since 2021 have failed. The bulk of these collapses took place after Pump.fun dramatically increased the number of new tokens entering the market.
Number of dead tokens on GeckoTerminal in 2021-2025. Source: GeckoTerminal.
In the first quarter of 2025 alone, 1.8 million tokens crashed — accounting for 49.7% of all recorded failures. This sharp drop in token survivability may be linked to growing market turbulence after Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, which coincided with a downturn in the broader crypto market.
More tokens, more failures
The surge in “dead” tokens is directly tied to the explosion of new crypto projects, which diluted investor focus and capital. While 428,383 projects were listed on GeckoTerminal in 2021, that number soared to nearly 7 million by 2025.
In 2024 alone, 1.4 million crypto projects failed, making up 37.7% of all token collapses over the past five years. However, that year also saw the highest number of launches, with over 3 million new tokens entering circulation.
By contrast, the pre-Pump.fun era (2021–2023) was relatively stable: failures during this time accounted for only 12.6% of all dead tokens.
The study defines a “dead” coin as one that was once listed and traded at least once on GeckoTerminal but is no longer actively traded. Failures were categorized by the year of their last recorded trading activity. The dataset spans from July 1, 2021, to March 31, 2025.
As we wrote, the cryptocurrency market has experienced multiple waves of rises and falls. Alongside the successes of Bitcoin and other popular digital assets, thousands of coins have failed, remaining on the sidelines of history.
