2026-01-18 11:22:55

The crypto market has witnessed a staggering surge in failed projects over recent years. Looking at the data: 2021 saw 2,584 dead tokens, but by 2022 the number exploded to 213,075—a dramatic 80x jump. This escalated further in 2023 with 245,049 failures, and 2024 pushed the needle dramatically to 1.38 million dead tokens. The trend has become almost vertical in 2025, with over 11.5 million dead tokens recorded.

What does this tell us? The token landscape is flooded with projects that either lack genuine utility, stumble on execution, or simply fail to build sustainable communities. Most are quick cash grabs or poorly conceived experiments that collapse as soon as market enthusiasm fades.

But here's the thing—amid this graveyard of failures, winners do emerge. They're the ones solving real problems: protocols offering genuine DeFi utility, teams with proven track records, and projects building actual adoption rather than hype. The winners tend to have strong developer activity, transparent governance, and communities that contribute beyond just speculation.

The lesson? Quality and fundamentals are becoming harder to ignore. As the crypto space matures, the separation between sustainable projects and flash-in-the-pan tokens grows more obvious. This culling, while harsh, might ultimately strengthen the ecosystem.

DEFI-3.35%

TOKEN-2.53%

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OPsychology

· 2h ago

ngl This data makes my scalp tingle... 11.5 million dead coins? Damn, how many people got cut? --- It's that same rhetoric of "quality projects will win," but how many actually survive? Most people are still betting on the next hundredfold coin haha --- In 2024, there are 1.38 million dead coins, and in just a short time in 2025, it reached 11.5 million... This growth rate is ridiculously fast, it feels like the entire track is just playing hot potato --- What they call "ecosystem optimization" is actually just the cleanup after the leek harvest. But to be fair, projects with real dev activity are indeed more resilient --- I just want to know how much of this 11.5M was pushed to me by my friends 😅 --- Fundamentals are really important, but who the hell can stay sober in a bull market without getting hyped... that's the real issue --- This is the data to look at in 2025. Wake up, those still chasing new coins.

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SelfStaking

· 5h ago

1. 11.55 million dead coins... This number is so outrageous I can't bear to look at it. It feels like the entire market is just a big casino. 2. Really, the retail investors are still chasing new coins, not realizing that over 10 million have already fallen dead. 3. This big cleanup is actually quite good. The trash projects should die faster, and only projects that do things properly can survive. 4. NGL, looking at this data is despairing, but I can also understand why the big players are fixated on those few top protocols. 5. Explosive growth... from 2.5k to 11.55 million. How many people must have been cut off? 6. So now it's about who has authenticity—developers, transparency, genuine users—everything else is just a supporting role. 7. Those rushing in to chase the trend have been weeded out; what's left are the truly resilient, real projects. 8. That's why I don't touch small-cap coins; they're mostly scam projects. 9. The quality gap is too obvious. The next cycle will be even more brutal.

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MysteryBoxOpener

· 5h ago

11.15 million dead coins? Damn, that number is outrageous. It feels like half of the projects in the crypto world are just air coins. In 2024, there are only 1.38 million, more than eight times the previous year... Basically, it's just bad money driving out good, too many trash projects. Actually, there aren't many truly useful projects. Most of them just run away right after issuing tokens—nothing new. I just choose to play with those that have active development and transparent information; I ignore the rest. It's a survivor bias. Those who survive definitely have some skills, but finding them is even harder than finding a needle in a haystack. Looking at it this way, a big cleanup in the crypto world might actually be a good thing. It was about time to eliminate these trash project teams.

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ShortingEnthusiast

· 5h ago

11 million dead tokens, how exaggerated does this data have to be to make people realize?

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Layer2Observer

· 5h ago

Let me take a look at these data... From 2022 to 2025, just a few years, the dead tokens skyrocketed from 210,000 to 11.5 million. This growth curve doesn't look right; there might be an issue with the statistical method. We need to clarify the counting logic. --- Honestly, most projects from the start are just paper talk, not really solving any problems, just wanting to make a quick profit and then run. --- An interesting discovery is that those that survive tend to have common traits: developer activity, transparent governance, genuine users—rather than just community hype. --- This wave of淘汰 is actually quite necessary. Although brutal, it will reduce the number of trash projects in the entire ecosystem. --- The question is how to quickly identify the real winners? Is it enough to just look at GitHub activity and the distribution of token holders? It seems we also need on-chain data verification. --- Instead of focusing on how many tokens have died, it's better to study why those that are alive are still alive—that's where the insights are.

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GateUser-e19e9c10

· 5h ago

Over 11 million dead coins? How much more do they have to harvest the retail investors...

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Layer2Arbitrageur

· 5h ago

ngl that 11.5M dead tokens number is insane but mathematically it checks out—basically a 4400x from 2021. most projects just have negative gas optimization vibes from day one tbh. the real alpha is finding the ones with actual calldata compression and cross-chain liquidity depth before they pump. everything else is just noise.

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