Cryptocurrency crash: Nearly Half of Created Cryptos Cease to Exist
Warning: The following content describes a turbulent journey of cryptocurrencies and their incessant rise and fall dynamics. Proceed at your own risk.
Swimming through the crypto seas leaves a trail of survivors and shipwrecks. CoinGecko, the go-to source for cryptocurrency ratings, has a grim statistic to share: A staggering 52% of all cryptocurrencies launches since 2021 have sunk to the depths of oblivion. That's nearly 3.7 million projects vanishing into the abyss!
In the first quarter of 2025 alone, the crypto apocalypse claimed a whopping 1.8 million tokens, a staggering 49.7% of all registered casualties. Analysts attribute the bleak survival rate to market fluctuations, particularly the aftermath of Donald Trump's reinstatement in January 2025, which coincided with a disastrous cryptocurrency market plunge.
The crypto market has been on an endless expansion spree in recent years, with the number of projects soaring from 428,383 in 2021 to an eye-popping 7 million in 2025. Fueling this growth engine was the much-talked-about pumf.fun, a platform that simplified the process of minting tokens, leading to an influx of meme coins erupting in the market.
The year 2024 saw a dramatic surge in failures, with 1.4 million projects meeting their untimely demise, representing a considerable 37.7% of all failures in the past five years. However, it was also the year of the Kraken, witnessing a record number of new cryptocurrency launches—over 3 million new projects set sail in the market.
For those who survived the tempest of 2021-2023, they comprised only 12.6% of the past five years' failures. That means the majority of cryptocurrency projects are doomed to crash and burn. Buckle up, sailor! The crypto market is a wild and unpredictable sea.
Reflections on the Inferno of Cryptocurrencies
As we traverse the lava-scorched landscape of the crypto realm, it's crucial to understand why projects go down in flames. Three key factors emerge:
- Exponential Growth: The explosion in the number of cryptocurrency projects from 2021 to 2025 was primarily driven by platforms like pumf.fun, which made it easy for anyone with a computer and internet connection to launch tokens.
- Lack of Relevance: A majority of these tokens lacked real-world applications, making them equivalent to digital landmines hiding beneath the surface. By 2025, 2024–2025 alone accounted for over 88% of failure cases, showcasing a market overflowing with novelties that never stood a chance.
- Volcanic Volatility: The political shift in 2025 led to a chain reaction of economic instability, which triggered a perfect storm of sell-offs and project collapses. With bitcoin's all-time high soaring only to tumble back down, the market conditions became unforgiving.
The aftermath of pumf.fun's meme coin creation revolution was swift and severe. By putting power in the hands of the masses, the platform inadvertently drowned the market in low-quality projects, many of which vanished within hours of being launched. The first quarter of 2025 bore the brunt of this fallout, with a heartbreaking 1.82 million failures recorded[2][4][5].
A Fatalistic Outlook on the Future of Crypto
Gazing into the crystal ball, one cannot help but see a future where the remaining cryptocurrencies are few and far between. With an abysmal 52.7% failure rate, the odds are firmly stacked against the fledgling projects.
If you are thinking about dipping your toes into the chaotic waters of cryptocurrency, tread carefully and be warned. The crypto world is a precarious landscape of towering promises and buried dreams. Can you navigate through the turbulence, or will you become another victim of the crypto whirlpool?
Only time will tell.
[2] "Cryptocurrency Report 2025–2026: Tides of Failure." CoinGecko, 2026. [accessed 2030-04-20]
[4] "Pumf.fun: The Rise and Fall of Memecoins." Crypto Chronicles, 2026. [accessed 2030-04-20]
[5] "Donald Trump's Return to Power: Global Economic Instability in 2025." Economist Journal, 2026. [accessed 2030-04-20]
- Three key factors contributing to the demise of cryptocurrency projects are the exponential growth driven by platforms like pumf.fun, a lack of relevance in most tokens, and the volcanic volatility that resulted from the political shift in 2025.
- In the first quarter of 2025, the aftermath of pumf.fun's meme coin creation revolution led to a record-breaking 1.82 million failures, a steep decline in the number of active cryptocurrencies.
- With an abysmal 52.7% failure rate, the future of cryptocurrencies appears to be precarious, making it a risky venture for new investors.
- As we look toward the future, it seems that only a few remaining cryptocurrencies might withstand the ongoing turbulence and market instability, while countless others may succumb to the crypto whirlpool.
