Yeliz Akmaca 
The number of crypto projects has grown at an unprecedented pace, but durability has not followed the same trajectory. According to CoinGecko data, 53.2% of all crypto tokens ever listed are no longer active. In practical terms, one out of every two tokens eventually stopped trading.
What stands out is not just the scale of these failures, but how unevenly they are distributed over time. Project closures did not accumulate gradually. Instead, they clustered sharply into a single period. 2025 emerged as a clear breaking point for the crypto market.
Before that shift, annual failure numbers remained relatively contained. Prior to 2024, yearly crypto project shutdowns stayed in the low six figures. In fact, all failures recorded between 2021 and 2023 accounted for just 3.4% of total closures since 2021.
The dynamic changed as token creation tools gained momentum. Platforms such as Solana-based meme coin launchpad Pump.fun significantly lowered the cost and friction of issuing new tokens. As production accelerated, the market absorbed a growing number of short-lived projects. When pressure increased, closures no longer spread across years — they concentrated.
2025 Data Breaks Away From the Trend
In 2025 alone, 11.6 million tokens failed. That figure represents 86.3% of all crypto project shutdowns recorded between 2021 and 2025.
Earlier years look modest by comparison. In 2021, only 2,584 projects closed. The number rose to 213,075 in 2022 and 245,049 in 2023. By 2024, closures accelerated to roughly 1.38 million.
Then came 2025 — and the curve detached entirely.
More Projects, Less Structural Resilience
Over the same period, the total number of listed crypto projects expanded rapidly. CoinGecko data shows listings increased from 428,383 projects in 2021 to roughly 20.2 million by 2025. The ease of launching tokens played a decisive role in this expansion, opening the door to large volumes of low-effort and speculative projects.
A substantial portion of that growth came from the meme coin segment. Attention and liquidity, however, did not scale at the same speed. As a result, structurally weaker tokens were far more exposed when market conditions tightened.
Fourth Quarter Pressure Intensified the Washout
The final quarter of 2025 marked the most concentrated phase of the collapse. Approximately 7.7 million tokens stopped trading within just three months, accounting for 34.9% of all recorded crypto project failures to date.
This period coincided with heightened market stress and large-scale liquidations. A wave of leveraged position unwinding in October amplified pressure on already fragile projects, accelerating exits for tokens that were struggling to sustain activity.
Taken together, the data highlights a simple reality: growth in numbers does not automatically translate into market strength. As the crypto ecosystem expanded, selectivity increased alongside it. Projects built on short-term interest proved far more vulnerable once conditions shifted.
Whether the bulk of this cleansing process is complete remains unclear. What is evident, however, is that 2025 reshaped the failure curve — not gradually, but decisively.
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