According to CoinGecko, over 1.8 million crypto tokens ceased to exist in the first quarter of 2025 alone. This massive wave of failures coincided with the simplification of meme token launches and instability driven by market fluctuations following Donald Trump’s inauguration. The report notes that the total number of failed projects now exceeds half of all tokens created since 2021.
More Than Half of All Tokens Have Left the Market
Since 2021, nearly 7 million cryptocurrencies have been tracked on the GeckoTerminal platform. Of these, 3.7 million tokens have stopped trading and are considered failed, according to CoinGecko analyst Shaun Paul Lee. In Q1 2025 alone, 1.8 million tokens went bankrupt — accounting for 48,6% of all failures and 25% of all tokens issued since 2021.
Pump.fun and the Explosive Simplification of Token Launches
Analysts directly link the sharp rise in failed projects to the emergence of the Pump.fun platform. This tool reduced token creation to just a few clicks and triggered a flood of meme tokens unsupported by real projects.
In 2024, over 3 million new tokens were launched — a record high. By comparison, just over 835,000 tokens were launched in 2023. Before Pump.fun, the number of failed tokens was in the hundreds of thousands. According to Lee, projects created between 2021 and 2023 account for only 12.6% of all crypto failures over the past five years.
Survival Rates on the Platform Close to Zero
According to CoinGecko, around 98% of tokens launched on Pump.fun never make it beyond the internal system. The highest survival rate was recorded in November 2024, when just 1.67% of tokens made it to open markets.
CoinGecko co-founder Bobby Ong noted in the March 6 report that interest in memecoins declined after a series of failed launches. The scandal surrounding the Libra (LIBRA) token, whose collapse cooled retail investor enthusiasm, had a particularly negative impact.
Politics and Markets: How Trump’s Inauguration Affected Tokens
The spike in token failures is also tied to instability following market turbulence triggered by Donald Trump’s inauguration as President of the United States in January 2025. In response to his statements about large-scale tariffs, both stock and crypto markets experienced high volatility. However, by late April, the market began showing signs of recovery. After drifting around $76,000, Bitcoin (BTC) finally recovered to $95,000.
Trading activity on Pump.fun also surged after the launch of a Trump-related memecoin on January 18. Still, the broader trend indicates a short-term spike in interest followed by a decline amid an overheated market and low quality of new tokens.
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