Crypto market volatility took a heavy toll on digital asset projects last year, with meme coins absorbing the bulk of the damage.
Key Takeaways:
- More than 11.6 million crypto projects failed in 2025, with meme coins hit hardest.
- An October market crash accelerated failures, wiping out 7.7 million tokens in Q4.
- Low-barrier launchpads flooded the market, magnifying losses as sentiment turned.
More than 11.6 million crypto projects failed in 2025, marking the highest annual total on record and underscoring the fragility of speculative tokens during periods of market stress.
The sharpest losses came in the final quarter of the year.
7.7M Tokens Went Dark in Q4 After October Market Crash
According to a report released Friday by CoinGecko research analyst Shaun Paul Lee, roughly 7.7 million tokens listed on GeckoTerminal stopped trading between October and December.
Lee pointed to the Oct. 10 market crash, when more than $19 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated in a single day, as a decisive trigger that accelerated project failures.
“This sharp decline in token survivability may be linked to the broader market turbulence throughout the year, which particularly affected the meme coin sector,” Lee said.
CoinGecko defines a failed cryptocurrency as a token that was once actively traded on GeckoTerminal but has since ceased activity.
The scale of the collapse represents a dramatic jump from previous years. Around 1.3 million projects failed in 2024, while just 2,584 failures were recorded in 2021, highlighting how quickly risk appetite expanded over the past cycle.
Meme coins, often driven by social momentum rather than fundamentals, tend to amplify those swings.
Beyond market stress, sheer volume played a central role. GeckoTerminal data shows the number of listed tokens climbed from about 3 million at the end of 2024 to nearly 20 million by the close of 2025.
Lee attributed much of that growth to the rise of low-friction token launch tools, particularly on Solana.
The launch of pump.fun in early 2024 made it easier than ever to deploy new tokens, fueling an influx of projects with minimal development or staying power.
“The ease of launching tokens on launchpads has led to a surge in low-effort meme coins entering the market,” Lee said.
Before 2024, annual crypto failures were typically in the low six figures, with projects launched between 2021 and 2023 accounting for just 3.4% of all failures over the past five years.
Meme coins Rebound in Early 2026 as Market Cap and Volumes Jump
Despite last year’s washout, meme coins entered 2026 with renewed momentum.
Data from CoinMarketCap shows the sector’s market capitalization rose from $38 billion in late December to $47.7 billion in early January, before easing to around $43.7 billion.
Transaction volumes surged as well, briefly jumping more than 300% before settling back, suggesting speculative interest has returned.
Tokens such as PEPE, BONK, and FLOKI led the rebound with strong double-digit gains, reigniting debate over whether the move reflects short-term speculation or an early signal of broader altcoin rotation.
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