The Dark Reality of Crypto: Over 13 Million Dead Coins and the Truth Investors

[Jankuokm]

Many people look at the glamour of the cryptocurrency market and think that simply investing money here can make them rich overnight. But we rarely talk about how dark the other side of the coin really is. Recent data from CoinGecko is enough to shock anyone. Since 2014, more than half of all listed cryptocurrencies—around 53% of projects—are now effectively dead coins. In numbers, that’s over 13.4 million projects. A large portion of these failures has occurred in recent times. In fact, 2025 can be called the “year of coin deaths.” According to reports, about 86% of all crypto projects that have failed in the last few years collapsed in 2025 alone. The main reasons behind this are the uncontrolled flood of memecoins and the rise of platforms like Pump.fun, where anyone can launch a token without any valid use case.

In simple terms, the market now has more scams and low-effort tokens than genuine projects. During bull markets, we only see the success stories of Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana. But how many people pay attention to the reality that millions of projects disappear after taking investors’ money? For those who entered the market during the last bull run (post-2021), these statistics should serve as a serious warning.

To survive in the crypto space, blindly chasing hype or trends is no longer enough. Fundamental analysis is more important now than ever before. Remember, without proper knowledge, the survival rate in this market is extremely low. Before investing, think carefully—will the coin in your portfolio still exist next year, or will it end up on the list of over 13 million dead coins?

[Ocham]

To survive in the crypto space, blindly chasing hype or trends is no longer enough. Fundamental analysis is more important now than ever before. Remember, without proper knowledge, the survival rate in this market is extremely low. Before investing, think carefully—will the coin in your portfolio still exist next year, or will it end up on the list of over 13 million dead coins?

You are absolutely right—without proper knowledge, surviving in this market is very difficult. I’ve noticed for a long time that many tokens disappear just a few days after being launched. It’s best to invest cautiously; I don’t want the token I choose to end up among the 13 million dead coins.

[asriloni]

To survive in the crypto space, blindly chasing hype or trends is no longer enough. Fundamental analysis is more important now than ever before. Remember, without proper knowledge, the survival rate in this market is extremely low. Before investing, think carefully—will the coin in your portfolio still exist next year, or will it end up on the list of over 13 million dead coins?

It totally depends on what kind of tokens you're interested in. If you're planning to buy meme token, fundamental analysis ain't work. If you're thinking to invest in the top coin, fundamental can be useful. The problem is that many people are always interesting in doubing their money in matter of days. This is impossible without the help of putting their money into the meme coin. However, these days many scammers used meme just for scamming purpose.

Nevertheless, believe me a smart and well educated investors know very well about when to put their money on a coin or meme/.

It's caused by it's a common knowledge that should be owned by any of crypto investors.

[SquallLeonhart]

To be fair, the number seems a bit inflated because we are not counting every token and every coin still it literally takes 5 minutes to create one, so it is not like it is some hard barrier to enter to, it is literally the easiest thing you can do. I can do one right now in 10 minutes and I have never done before. Because it's open source, so you just change a few things and you have your own.

It's the ones that gets funding that makes me question it, like why would anyone fund something so silly? So, marketing must be playing a big role here. This is why those 'hype or trends' were introduced to lure the investors. Overall, completely staying away from altcoins and hodling bitcoin alone could be one of the easiest way to survive in this crypto space because you cannot stop scammy devs from creating a new coin and market it through the latest trend like memecoins and then loot the investors.

[robelneo]

 Before investing, think carefully—will the coin in your portfolio still exist next year, or will it end up on the list of over 13 million dead coins?

Even a non-techie who doesn't know how to code can create a coin. There are platforms that automate the creation of tokens; everyone wants their cash cow, which is why we have millions of dead coins, and it will keep happening because we are not lacking greedy people.

If you have the money, you can avail of shilling service to hype your coin or token, and there are investors who just don't care about utility, they just buy the hype wait for the right time to dumpo for a quick profit, those who do not understand how this is structured by whales and developers will end up losing a lot of money.

[ecnalubma]

Man, that 13 million number is a gut punch, but honestly, it’s the reality check this space needs. We spend so much time staring at candles on the 'blue chips' that it's easy to forget we’re literally swimming in a graveyard of failed hype and abandoned code.

It really validates why focusing on pure price action and actual volume is the only way to survive. Most of those dead coins didn't have a strategy or a community just a marketing budget that ran dry. If you aren't trading the survival of the top 1%, you're basically just waiting to become another statistic on that list.

Stay safe out there and stick to the charts, because the truth isn't in the whitepapers anymore it's in the liquidity.

[Hypnotizer]

Basically this is it, tons of cryptocurrencies out there..this is why it is better to invest only in bitcoin and not have much of your money in this shitcoins. You can’t just  buy any cryptocurrency you see out there! Last year during the market crash in October, it is very evident that most of these coins are shits, with the statistics in the OP, almost 86% have failed last year, so imagine you invested in those coins which off course there are people they did that and they lost their money.

DYOR is really important in this space , if you really DYOR and understand what the coin is before investing you might save yourself from this gamble because investing in what you don’t fullly understand is the same as gambling.

[uchegod-21]

Like I will tell newbies, if it is not Bitcoin, it can never be. I am not surprised with the number of dead coins. Although, the number seems well inflated, I'm still not shocked. These coins ride with hype and there are quite a good number of people who only want get rich quick opportunities. Despite all the warning signs and similar cases being experienced in the past, people will still risk their money. When the hype dies, the coin dies a natural death. Many people became victims, except for the smart ones who entered the market earlier and exited the market when the hype was still high. You know the funny thing? If a memecoin is launched today, people will still invest.

[Stablexcoin]

Like I will tell newbies, if it is not Bitcoin, it can never be. I am not surprised with the number of dead coins. Although, the number seems well inflated, I'm still not shocked. These coins ride with hype and there are quite a good number of people who only want get rich quick opportunities. Despite all the warning signs and similar cases being experienced in the past, people will still risk their money. When the hype dies, the coin dies a natural death. Many people became victims, except for the smart ones who entered the market earlier and exited the market when the hype was still high. You know the funny thing? If a memecoin is launched today, people will still invest.

Certain investors believe they can get quick rich using altcoins than Bitcoin, their instincts may be the truth even though it barely happens, but the question is how aware they will be fortunate trying so many altcoins, in a period where majority of the newly altcoins are shitcoins, from this angle of viewing cryptocurrency, it is like gambling after buying cryptocurrencies that are not Bitcoin, high possibility that the altcoins might turn dead coins.

I support your advice to newbies, better to start with Bitcoin and make sure to hold enough before diversifying into altcoins if they want to, Bitcoin has to be the number one focus when deciding which coin to buy.

[HONDACD125]

In simple terms, the market now has more scams and low-effort tokens than genuine projects. During bull markets, we only see the success stories of Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana. But how many people pay attention to the reality that millions of projects disappear after taking investors’ money? For those who entered the market during the last bull run (post-2021), these statistics should serve as a serious warning.

Shouldn't those who are investing in those useless coins and tokens pay attention to these things? I mean, why do people invest in new or unknown cryptocurrencies with no history or anything? I'll tell you why, it's because they are greedy, and they believe that they can make more money from these coins or projects than they can get from Bitcoin and other known cryptocurrencies with a proven track record of giving people profits eventually. So if greedy people make such investments and lose their money, it's their fault, and they have themselves to blame for it.

If you are getting into a financial market, you should have a mindset of getting profits from your investments, but if you enter the market with the intention of getting rich very quickly, you will most probably end up losing money instead of making anything from it, and this mindset is the reason why so many people lose so much money in the crypto market, it's because they go for meme coins and newly launched projects because they think they can get them rich, but they don't know that gambling is gambling, you either gain or lose, so you have to accept the outcome if you have made the decision.

[WillyAp]

Like I will tell newbies, if it is not Bitcoin, it can never be. I am not surprised with the number of dead coins. Although, the number seems well inflated, I'm still not shocked.

Here is the link:
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/01/14/more-than-half-of-all-crypto-tokens-have-failed-and-most-died-in-2025

[AVE5]

I believe from there we can over reason why some skeptics and enthusiasts actually deemed to see the crypto market to be ponzi scheme because the strategies of those pumped and dumped coins developers isn't different from the operational strategies of those scammers who with their teams actually sets up the platform to profit first timer investors just so that, they can use the opportunity to o lure others in before shutting down the site and made away with investors funds.
So often, there had been much number of such dead crypto projects which developers couldn't either meet the target to keep it active or, they've really met their goal of income and then just let the project to crash after on.
This attributes is why beginners is advised not to invest on new launched projects all just because it's trending but safer for them to invest on the tested long lasted and earliest crypto as bitcoin which seems reliable that all those shitcoins were tending to imitate.

[Richbased]

Sometimes i do wonder if those people that dive into new projects as soon as they are launched in exchanges don't have anything to do with their money. If i want to try and invest in any coin that is not bitcoin, i'll try and find out if the coin has survived the market at least for a decade. The reason why people still keeps falling for those coins that disappears within a short time after they are launched is because they thought that those coins will make them rich overnight not knowing that they are all scam coins. Let for me alone, i cannot invest my money on any new coin no matter the hype and how the project owners tries to persuade me.

[Cryptohygenic]

Basically this is it, tons of cryptocurrencies out there..this is why it is better to invest only in bitcoin and not have much of your money in this shitcoins. You can’t just  buy any cryptocurrency you see out there! Last year during the market crash in October, it is very evident that most of these coins are shits, with the statistics in the OP, almost 86% have failed last year, so imagine you invested in those coins which off course there are people they did that and they lost their money.

DYOR is really important in this space , if you really DYOR and understand what the coin is before investing you might save yourself from this gamble because investing in what you don’t fullly understand is the same as gambling.

Honestly investing in Alt coins is not good for beginners because they would surely fall victims of investing in any of these short term projects while tending to invest in the long term and have thought it was going to perform like bitcoin.
Some are out of buying very cheap and then invest in those shit coins and expect it to perform like the bitcoin of it history down to it becoming one of the most attractive digital value today with the huge increase of price.
Even when it seems difficult for experience enthusiasts to identify a potential coin amongst these newly introduced shit coins, It really seem a high level of unconscious ness of the newbies to even think they can find good choices over other coins aside bitcoin.
Obviously out of their lack of experience of what is going on in the crypto space, they will always consider reliability and potentials coins to be identified by the market hypes.

[Emjay24]

In simple terms, the market now has more scams and low-effort tokens than genuine projects. During bull markets, we only see the success stories of Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana. But how many people pay attention to the reality that millions of projects disappear after taking investors’ money? For those who entered the market during the last bull run (post-2021), these statistics should serve as a serious warning.

When you talk about long-term performance, Bitcoin is the focus and people who wants to choose peace in their crypto journey would always go for it because it has a solid foundation and strong continuity prospects. Ethereum is centralized and not very safe to invest a large chunk of your money. Bull markets comes with lots of distractions from pump and dump shitcoins and they would only deceive newbies and greedy people who come into the crypto space to actually gamble rather than seek out good project for investment purpose.

To survive in the crypto space, blindly chasing hype or trends is no longer enough. Fundamental analysis is more important now than ever before.

These are for people who believe what influencers and project shillers say over the social media. Some people never learn and are always victims of such stupid projects. It is important to use very little money to venture into these new projects_{if you cannot ignore them} since they may or may not even last long enough to give you profits.

[davis196]

Many people look at the glamour of the cryptocurrency market and think that simply investing money here can make them rich overnight. But we rarely talk about how dark the other side of the coin really is. Recent data from CoinGecko is enough to shock anyone. Since 2014, more than half of all listed cryptocurrencies—around 53% of projects—are now effectively dead coins. In numbers, that’s over 13.4 million projects. A large portion of these failures has occurred in recent times. In fact, 2025 can be called the “year of coin deaths.” According to reports, about 86% of all crypto projects that have failed in the last few years collapsed in 2025 alone. The main reasons behind this are the uncontrolled flood of memecoins and the rise of platforms like Pump.fun, where anyone can launch a token without any valid use case.

In simple terms, the market now has more scams and low-effort tokens than genuine projects. During bull markets, we only see the success stories of Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana. But how many people pay attention to the reality that millions of projects disappear after taking investors’ money? For those who entered the market during the last bull run (post-2021), these statistics should serve as a serious warning.

To survive in the crypto space, blindly chasing hype or trends is no longer enough. Fundamental analysis is more important now than ever before. Remember, without proper knowledge, the survival rate in this market is extremely low. Before investing, think carefully—will the coin in your portfolio still exist next year, or will it end up on the list of over 13 million dead coins?

13.4 million is a bit too much. I guess that the article author included all the NFT projects and memecoins in that list.
First of all, most shitcoin and pump-and-pump rug pull scams aren't "failed". They are "successful" from the scammer's perspective, because they have achieved their unethical goal. The goal is to make the scammers rich. Yes, this is illegal and unethical, but that was the main goal of all shitcoins, memecoins, NFTs, etc. all along.
The fact that there are so many "dead coins" doesn't mean that crypto is dead or a failure. It means that the online scammers around the world have utilized the crypto space for their scams(which is bad, but the authorities around the world have to fight back).

[bitbollo]

Bitcoin has been always too much expensive so people have always been focused in altcoins.
Probably in the years this market has going worst than ever, with the "memecoins" literally a digital ponzi or just a scam.

If people use crypto for "making money" it's clear we have lost the real nature of this tools.
And probably only people that use these tools in the proper way are able to achieve the real success with crypto...

[Ocham]

Bitcoin has been always too much expensive so people have always been focused in altcoins.
Probably in the years this market has going worst than ever, with the "memecoins" literally a digital ponzi or just a scam.

If people use crypto for "making money" it's clear we have lost the real nature of this tools.
And probably only people that use these tools in the proper way are able to achieve the real success with crypto...

Because Bitcoin has become expensive, many people are turning toward altcoins or memecoins. This shift is not driven by greed alone, but by the realistic search for higher returns with smaller capital. History shows that many successful projects were initially ignored and labeled merely as “altcoins.” Altcoins represent a mix of opportunity and risk. Entering without understanding can lead to disaster, but entering with knowledge opens the door to real potential. However, in my opinion, for those who are already millionaires, Bitcoin and altcoins often don’t feel as time-sensitive or urgent—they see them more as long-term assets than life-changing opportunities.

[DubemIfedigbo001]

To survive in the crypto space, blindly chasing hype or trends is no longer enough. Fundamental analysis is more important now than ever before. Remember, without proper knowledge, the survival rate in this market is extremely low. Before investing, think carefully—will the coin in your portfolio still exist next year, or will it end up on the list of over 13 million dead coins?

You are absolutely right—without proper knowledge, surviving in this market is very difficult. I’ve noticed for a long time that many tokens disappear just a few days after being launched. It’s best to invest cautiously; I don’t want the token I choose to end up among the 13 million dead coins.

Proper knowledge and absence of greed. Most people are in the know of the poor nature of most tokens but greed and a desire to get rich quick sees them step into a python's hole while trying to be careful not to be bit by the python itself.

Greed to multiply income faster despite knowing it is a scam and trying to get out faster before it crashes has seen lots of people at loss because the truth is that creators of these shitcoins knows exactly what we know too are always calculating when to remove liquidity so they take with them as much funds as obtainable.

[AbuBhakar]

It's been happening since before the 2021 bull market. It started with tokens under Ethereum when ICOs became popular. Actually, up until now, I still see people offering things like that, but memecoins are more common now since many people want quick money. Many people lose it there. Some even encourage people to invest in meme coins because they say there is a greater potential to earn a lot if you hit the jackpot, without thinking that those who are stuck and helpless lose more because when they sell, they almost never get their investment back. I'm not really a fan of memecoins, even though they have become a trending cryptocurrency.