14,039 tokens listed on CoinGecko since 2014 are now 'dead': Report
This represents 50% of all the crypto assets listed on the platform, with most of the failed projects being listed during bull runs.
Share this article
On January 15, a report from data aggregator CoinGecko revealed that more than half of all tokens listed on its platform since 2014 have ceased to exist as of this month. Out of over 24,000 crypto assets introduced, 14,039 have been declared ‘dead’.
Most of these failed projects were launched during the last bull run, which occurred between 2020 and 2021. During this period, CoinGecko listed 11,000 new tokens, and 7,530 of them have since shut down (68.5%), highlights the report. This accounts for 53.6% of all the dead tokens on the platform.
The list of dead crypto reached its peak in 2021 when more than 5,700 tokens launched that year failed, more than 70% of the total, making it the worst year for crypto launches.
For reference, the bull run seen between 2017 and 2018 saw a similar trend, albeit with a smaller number of new projects. Over 3,000 tokens were introduced during this time, and approximately 1,450 have since shut down, mirroring the approximately 70% failure rate of the later bull run.
The study categorizes tokens as ‘dead’ or ‘failed’ based on certain criteria, including no trading activity within the last 30 days, confirmation of the project as a scam or ‘rug pull’, and requests by projects to be deactivated due to various reasons like disbandment, rebranding, or major token overhauls.
The high rate of failure, particularly during the last bull cycle, is largely attributed to the ease of deploying tokens combined with the surge in popularity of ‘memecoins’. Many of these memecoin projects were launched without a solid product foundation, leading to a majority of them being abandoned shortly after their introduction.
The trend of dead crypto was followed in 2022, although with a slightly lower rate of failure. Of the crypto listed that year, about 3,520 have died, a number close to 60% of the total listed on CoinGecko for that year.
In contrast, 2023 has shown a significant decrease in the failure rate, with over 4,000 tokens listed and only 289 experiencing failure. This represents a failure rate of less than 10%.
Share this article
