Article Summary
Nearly 1.8 million crypto projects have failed in 2025, signaling the industry’s most severe shakeout yet, with experts projecting total dead projects could surpass 3 million by year’s end.
📉 Crypto Mass Extinction Expands in 2025
The digital asset ecosystem continues to shrink rapidly in 2025, with data from CoinGecko confirming that more than 1.8 million cryptocurrency projects have already failed or gone inactive during the first quarter alone. This figure accounts for almost half of all project failures recorded between 2021 and 2025, underscoring the accelerating pace of market consolidation across the crypto landscape.
The trend follows the record-breaking collapse of 2024, when 1.4 million tokens were declared “dead.” Analysts now warn that the current trajectory could push total 2025 failures beyond 3 million projects—the highest number in digital asset history.
🪙 Meme Tokens and Low-Utility Projects Disappear First
According to multiple studies, meme coins and speculative low-utility tokens remain the most vulnerable segment. A DigiVestasi report revealed that 97% of meme-coin projects launched in previous years failed by 2024, and the trend has only intensified in 2025. Many of these tokens lack whitepapers, real use cases, or development activity, and quickly vanish after short-lived speculative runs.
DeFi, metaverse, and NFT initiatives with limited liquidity and inactive teams have also joined the casualty list. Reports from BitKE highlight thousands of projects showing no GitHub activity, community engagement, or exchange volume for extended periods—key indicators of abandonment.
⚙️ Industry Faces Regulatory and Economic Pressure
Experts point to multiple factors driving the ongoing collapse: tighter global regulations, declining speculative capital, and investor migration toward real-world asset-backed tokens. As institutional players demand transparency, weak projects with anonymous teams or unverifiable reserves are rapidly being delisted or abandoned.
Crypto analysts forecast that between 3.0 and 3.5 million projects could be defunct by the end of 2025, depending on the pace of new token listings and liquidity conditions. While painful, this purge is viewed as a natural evolution toward a more sustainable and compliant digital-asset economy—one built on utility, governance, and real adoption.
Disclaimer:
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.
This article was created with AI assistance and curated by DNIR Staff for accuracy and editorial standards.
Source: Digital News & Investigative Reports (DNIR) — cnirbc.com
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