The cryptocurrency landscape has faced a startlingly rapid transformation. Recent data suggests that, since 2021, more than 52.7% of the altcoin market has effectively vanished. This translates to just over half of the roughly seven million altcoin projects collapsing. The peak years for these failures were predominantly 2024 and 2025, indicating a volatile period for digital assets.
What Led to the Altcoin Downfall?
In an analysis of trends, GeckoTerminal reported that, by the first quarter of 2025 alone, more than 1.8 million altcoin projects had shuttered, marking 49.7% of all noted failures since early 2021. To put this into context, the number of closures in 2025 nearly equaled the sum of all closures in the previous four years.
Experts attribute this drastic decline to a mix of market volatility and political shifts. The ascent of President Donald Trump brought notable market uncertainty. This climate of unpredictability particularly affected less substantial projects, eroding investor trust and exacerbating the rate of failures.
The landscape prior to this period had not experienced such a high volume of “coin deaths”. In 2024, failures hit 1.3 million projects, accounting for 37.7% of total collapses up to that point. Notably, the situation was tamer in 2023 and the preceding years.
How Did Pump.fun Impact the Market?
Part of the surge in coin creation was linked to a platform called pump.fun, which, in 2024, simplified the launch of coins. This led to an explosion of low-effort “memecoin“-like projects, most of which added little value and either failed to generate trading activity or ceased shortly thereafter.
Analysis from GeckoTerminal only considered coins that had engaged in at least one trade. This included projects birthed on pump.fun that entered trading markets. Even with these criteria, the findings highlighted an unchecked expansion trend.
Key takeaways from this turbulent period include:
- By 2025, an estimated 428,000 altcoins listed in 2021 had evolved into nearly 7 million projects.
- The altcoin boom was marked by a significant influx of poorly conceived projects.
- Many new coins, aspiring for rapid profits, ceased trades almost instantaneously, leaving investors at a loss.
This period of instability situated altcoins in a precarious position, raising concerns about the longevity and reliability of many digital currencies in the future. With regulatory scrutiny increasing, the market might see more structured oversight to prevent such occurrences in the years ahead.
