While the cryptocurrency market is flooded with tokens, most are unlikely to survive.
According to CryptoNews on the 30th (local time), a new CoinGecko report shows that 3.7 million cryptocurrencies have failed since 2021. Nearly half of these collapses occurred between 2024 and early 2025.
In the first quarter of 2025 alone, 1.8 million tokens failed, accounting for 49.7% of all recorded closures. The surge of these failed projects coincided with market instability that escalated after Donald Trump's presidential inauguration in January 2025.
This event triggered a downturn and exposed the vulnerability of newly launched low-quality coins. Political-themed joke coins were hit the hardest.
Tokens like $MELANIA with a Melania Trump theme and Libra associated with Argentine President Javier Milei suffered significant losses, with their values dropping by over 95%.
Nansen reported that 86% of Libra token traders, approximately 15,430 wallets, collectively lost over $251 million.
According to CoinGecko, the rapid expansion of meme coins significantly contributed to recent cryptocurrency market instability. From 2021 to 2025, the number of tracked cryptocurrency projects increased from 428,383 to nearly 7 million.
This growth was primarily facilitated by platforms like Pump.fun, a Solana-based service that simplified token creation with just a few clicks, without requiring proof of utility or sustainable design.
At the peak of the 2024 "meme season", Solana-based meme tokens generated billions of dollars in trading volume daily. However, according to CoinGecko data, over 1.3 million of the more than 3 million cryptocurrency tokens launched that year have already failed.
This situation has sparked widespread criticism of the cryptocurrency industry's indiscriminate token creation culture. The ease of launching coins without a whitepaper, clear roadmap, or actual use case has diluted the market and eroded investor confidence.
Beyond meme coins, the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market, which was at the forefront of Web3 development in 2022, has lost its cultural relevance. This decline has raised broad concerns about the cryptocurrency industry's ability to develop and maintain substantive and sustainable applications beyond speculative trading.
From 66 coins in 2013 to millions today, the 13,573% increase in token creation has not aligned with long-term viability. Unlike the massive altcoin rallies during the bull markets of 2017 and 2021, most altcoins in the current market remain at least 40% below their previous all-time highs.
This stagnation has damaged the broader image of the cryptocurrency sector. Traditional investors now view cryptocurrencies merely as "pump and dump trading grounds", and the data supports their skepticism.
As a result, cautious capital tends to focus on blue-chip assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana, which are also in negative territory compared to the beginning of the year.
Amid the chaos, stablecoins have emerged as one of the most robust cryptocurrency use cases. As of April 29, the stablecoin market capitalization reached $240 billion, approaching an all-time high. USDT dominates with a 61.92% market share, followed by USDC, USDe, and Dai.
Traditional finance is taking note. In a recent report, Citigroup predicted that the stablecoin market could exceed $2 trillion by 2030, assuming regulatory clarity and continued adoption. Even Federal Reserve Board member Christopher Waller acknowledged their potential, mentioning that US dollar-based stablecoins could support the dollar's international dominance.
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