Record-breaking 2025 marks 4,500-fold jump in crypto failures

Binaya Dahal

Editorial Intern, Financial Newswire

30 January 2026

A 4,500-fold jump since 2021 has taken the total number of crypto project failures to a staggering 11.6 million in 2025 and made it the worst year in history, according to data from Bestwallet.com.

Of the projects that failed, most did so in the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, when 7.7 million tokens collapsed amid market turbulence after the 10 October “liquidation cascade”.

As per the report, 86% of all failed projects recorded since 2021, which includes projects that became inactive, lost trading volume and liquidity or were abandoned, happened last year.

Between 2021 and 2025, a total of 25.2 million crypto projects were listed, including tiny token launches on DEXs like Uniswap or PancakeSwap, test tokens, meme coins made in minutes with token generators, and abandoned launches that never gained real volume or a lasting market.

Another 13.4 million projects failed in the same period, bringing the total number of tracked crypto launches to 38.6 million, including both successful projects and wipeouts, meaning nearly one in three crypto projects launched over the past five years failed.

Statistics also show that the number of project failures in 2025 was 8.4-times higher than in 2024 and 48-times higher than in 2023.

Based on Coingecko and Investing.com data, the number of failed crypto projects last year alone was roughly 1,200-times higher than the number of listed and traded cryptocurrencies.

“While some of these projects failed despite the real effort behind them, many were still low-effort tokens, including scam and rug-pull launches, copy-paste meme coins, and tokens with no real plan, community, or liquidity,” the Bestwallet.com report stated.