A recent analysis published by CoinGecko this Wednesday reveals that more than 53% of all tokens launched since mid-2021 have ceased to exist commercially. Of the approximately 20.2 million assets that entered the market, more than 10.7 million are currently considered inactive or dead. In this way, token failure has become a systemic phenomenon affecting the credibility of the cryptocurrencies ecosystem today.
On the other hand, the data indicates that the year 2025 was the most devastating period for the survival of these digital projects. In that year alone, 11.6 million assets died, representing 86.3% of all recent historical failures. Likewise, the rise of meme coins and the ease of creating assets through platforms like pump.fun saturated the market with very low-effort proposals technically. Therefore, the lack of solid development caused a massive collapse of speculative supply recently.
Furthermore, the report highlights that the fourth quarter of 2025 was especially critical for the tech industry. In just three months, 7.7 million projects failed following a massive liquidation event that wiped out $19 billion in leveraged positions. In this way, extreme market volatility erased millions of assets that lacked real utility or financial backing. For this reason, the ecosystem cleanup eliminated projects designed solely for short-term speculation on the charts.
The rise of easy launches and the 2025 liquidation cascade effect
On the other hand, analyst Shaun Paul Lee explained that extremely low barriers to entry facilitated this overexposure to junk assets. Many of these cryptos vanished after performing just a handful of trades on decentralized exchanges. Since the creation of experimental assets exceeded real demand, the market suffered an inevitable structural correction. Consequently, the disappearance of millions of tokens reflects a necessary maturation of the digital financial environment now.
It is important to compare these figures with 2021, when only about 2,584 projects failed in total. The exponential growth in token mortality suggests that the open-access design of blockchain has direct consequences on stability. It is also observed that investor confidence has become more selective following the deleveraging events recently observed. In this way, market natural selection is rewarding projects with greater intrinsic value for users.
Is this market cleanup beneficial for the stability of major digital assets?
Despite the alarming figures, many specialists consider the elimination of failed projects to be positive for the sector in the long run. By reducing the noise of worthless assets, capital tends to concentrate on more secure and developed protocols. Therefore, the end of the junk token era could give way to a much more responsible stage of innovation. Ultimately, investors are learning to identify red flags before committing their personal financial funds.
Finally, industry focus is now on creating more rigorous quality standards for new listings. The ability to survive in such a competitive environment depends exclusively on technical utility and transparent governance. Without a doubt, 2026 will be seen as the era following the great reset at a global level. Therefore, the survival of the strongest projects will solidify the future of the decentralized digital economy.
