Meme Coins Hit Hard as 11.6 Million Crypto Projects Collapse in 2025

The cryptocurrency market experienced significant turbulence in 2025, leading to the downfall of numerous digital asset projects, particularly affecting meme coins.

Key Takeaways:

Over 11.6 million crypto projects failed in 2025, with meme coins facing the brunt of the collapse.
An October market crash played a critical role in accelerating these failures, resulting in 7.7 million tokens being removed from trading in Q4.
The entry of many low-barrier token launch pads contributed to the losses, as market sentiment deteriorated.

In 2025, the total number of failed crypto projects surged to more than 11.6 million, representing the highest failure rate ever recorded. This situation highlights the vulnerability of speculative tokens during challenging market conditions.

Meme Coins Hit Hard as 11.6 Million Crypto Projects Collapse in 2025

Q4 Sees 7.7 Million Tokens Disappear Following October Crash

In a recent report released by CoinGecko research analyst Shaun Paul Lee, it was highlighted that approximately 7.7 million tokens listed on GeckoTerminal ceased trading between October and December 2025. This was particularly exacerbated by the market crash on October 10, which saw over $19 billion in leveraged positions liquidated in just one day.

Lee remarked, “This steep decline in token viability may correlate with the overall market turbulence witnessed throughout the year, especially impacting the meme coin sector.”

CoinGecko defines a failed cryptocurrency as one that was actively traded on GeckoTerminal but has since stopped all trading activities.

The scale of project failures this past year is stark in comparison to previous years. For instance, around 1.3 million projects failed in 2024, while only 2,584 failures were reported in 2021, showcasing the rapid expansion of risk tolerance observed over this most recent market cycle.

Meme coins are particularly susceptible to this volatility, often influenced by social trends rather than underlying value.

Volume also played a crucial role in this situation. According to GeckoTerminal, the number of listed tokens surged from approximately 3 million at the end of 2024 to nearly 20 million by the conclusion of 2025.

Much of this exponential growth can be attributed to the emergence of low-effort token launch platforms, especially within the Solana ecosystem.

The launch of pump.fun in early 2024 simplified the process of deploying new tokens, resulting in a flood of projects characterized by minimal development and sustainability.

Lee explained, “The ease associated with launching tokens on these platforms has resulted in a wave of low-effort meme coins entering the market.”

Historically, annual failures in the cryptocurrency sector used to hover around low six figures, with projects initiated from 2021 to 2023 representing only 3.4% of all failures over the past five years.

Meme Coins Experience a Rebound in Early 2026 as Market Cap and Trading Volumes Increase

Despite the challenges faced in 2025, meme coins began 2026 on an upward trajectory.

Data from CoinMarketCap reveals that the market capitalization for this sector increased from $38 billion in late December to $47.7 billion in early January, before settling back down to approximately $43.7 billion.

Additionally, trading volumes surged dramatically, briefly exceeding a 300% increase before stabilizing, indicating a resurgence in speculative interest.

Notable tokens such as PEPE, BONK, and FLOKI led this resurgence, achieving substantial double-digit gains, thus rekindling discussions on whether this trend signifies short-term speculation or an early indication of a broader altcoin rotation.