Meme coin cleanup: 11.6 million tokens expire in 2025, but the market is rebounding

GasWrangler · 2026-01-12T12:40:11+00:00

In 2025, the crypto market experienced 11.6 million tokens becoming invalid, setting a new record, with meme coins particularly hit hard. Excess token supply led to the failure of many projects. However, the meme coin market still demonstrated resilience, with market capitalization rebounding from $38 billion to $47.7 billion, showing that the enthusiasm of funds and speculators remains, but they are becoming more selective.

GasWrangler

2026-01-12 12:40:11

Abstract generation in progress

【Crypto World】The 2025 crypto market experienced an unprecedented token cleanup — a total of 11.6 million tokens became invalid throughout the year, setting a new record. Among them, meme coins suffered the most, with 7.7 million tokens failing in Q4 alone, mainly triggered by the over $19 billion liquidation wave caused by the crash on October 10.

Why did the invalid tokens explode? Essentially, it’s a supply-side problem. Platforms like pump.fun lowered the barriers to creating tokens to the minimum, leading to a flood of new coins. A large number of follow-up projects entered the market, most of which ultimately ended up worthless.

Interestingly, the meme coin market has shown resilient vitality. After the market crash, the sector’s market cap rebounded from $38 billion at the end of December to $47.7 billion in early January. What does this indicate? The enthusiasm of funds and speculators is still there, just becoming more selective. After the big waves, only projects that truly attract attention can survive.

View Original

This page may contain third-party content, which is provided for information purposes only (not representations/warranties) and should not be considered as an endorsement of its views by Gate, nor as financial or professional advice. See Disclaimer for details.

18 Likes

Reward
18
7
Repost
Share

Comment

0/400

BlockchainBouncer

· 01-12 13:10

Damn, another 11.6 million failed. Is this scale trying to scare retail investors to death? These trash projects should have been cleaned up long ago, but can meme coins still rebound? Truly impressive. Big players are picking up bargains, so let's gamble along too, after all, it's all about playing with heartbeat. The high failure rate indicates what? It means there are too many rotten projects, and investors are becoming more sophisticated. Meme coins are still alive, which shows there is still hope for this market.

View OriginalReply0

consensus_whisperer

· 01-12 13:08

This round of cleanup still needs to happen; trash projects deserve to die anyway.

View OriginalReply0

down_only_larry

· 01-12 13:04

11.6 million tokens have died, and we're still buying. Truly incredible. --- Cleaning is cleaning, but those who need to make money still make money. That's just the reality. --- Are speculators becoming more picky? Ha, then let's see who has the sharper eyes. --- A 10 billion rebound indicates that the bad projects haven't been thoroughly eliminated yet. --- Oversupply should lead to more failures; the market will self-purify. --- After this round of cleansing, we can finally see who is swimming naked. --- Resilience? I think it's the resilience of the leek farmers. --- Wanting to cleanse and make money at the same time—this game is really greedy.

View OriginalReply0

EternalMiner

· 01-12 13:02

The knockout stage has begun. Let the trash coins die off; it's actually healthier. However, truly good projects can still survive.

View OriginalReply0

RumbleValidator

· 01-12 13:01

11.6 million tokens invalidated? What is the consensus basis for verifying this data? Has it been confirmed on-chain? Don't jump to conclusions just by looking at the market noise.

View OriginalReply0

LiquidityOracle

· 01-12 12:56

The great cleanup is a good thing, garbage projects deserve to die, and projects with real liquidity are actually taking off.

View OriginalReply0

AirdropAutomaton

· 01-12 12:49

Just clean it up, trash projects deserve to die. Anyway, I only follow the ones that survive.

View OriginalReply0