CoinGecko: over 13.4 million cryptocurrencies have ceased to exist in four years

According to CoinGecko, over the past four years, the crypto market has experienced a large-scale wave of project closures — more than 13.4 million tokens and platforms ceased to exist between 2021 and 2025. This demonstrates how tough recent market cycles have been for new players.

The statistics show a sharp acceleration in the pace: in 2021, only 2,584 projects disappeared, in 2022 — more than 213 thousand, in 2023 — 245 thousand, in 2024 — more than 1.38 million, and in 2025 the number of failed attempts increased to more than 11.6 million. What started as isolated cases during the bull market turned into a massive purge when liquidity disappeared and speculative demand faded.

The reason for this scale was low barriers to launching tokens, exaggerated hype, and short-term incentives. Many projects lacked sustainable financial models, active development, or real demand. When prices fell, these weaknesses became critical.

The particularly sharp jump in 2025 is explained by the fact that a large number of long-abandoned or inactive tokens were officially classified as «dead.» This also indicates stronger accounting standards and better monitoring of the market.

In general, the collapse of more than 13 million projects confirms the main pattern of the crypto market: most initiatives do not survive the full market cycle. Volatility, competition, and capital redistribution constantly weed out those tokens that are unable to maintain relevance, liquidity, or trust. This emphasizes the difference between temporary experiments and long-term viability, and also shows how high the threshold for survival in the industry has become.