New tokens issued in 2025 faced a sharp valuation decline as initial liquidity was scarce, utility was weak, and distributions were inefficient, colliding with a risk-averse market environment. This confluence dampened demand for new assets and limited on-chain activity beyond trading.
Memento Research found that about 85% of tokens launched in 2025 were down from their initial values, while the median token had fallen by more than 70%. This pattern persisted despite broad market participation, signaling widespread revenue loss for new issuances. Large exchange-centric distributions and broad airdrops drew a flood of short-term traders into the market, creating ongoing selling pressure and weak links to real product use. Regulatory uncertainty and limited token use cases left many assets without a clear long-term value proposition in a Bitcoin-dominant market.
Teams hoping tokens would bootstrap ecosystems faced markets that moved in a single direction, forcing defensive positioning and stifling potential growth. The study notes that many tokens were liquidized before demand existed, widely held before a community formed, and traded actively before meaningful product utility. A broader takeaway is that misalignment among issuance, ownership, and utility, rather than a fundamental flaw in tokens, doomed many launches. Going forward, the industry is exploring use-based distributions and governance-linked incentives to ensure token ownership reflects actual product usage rather than mere trading.
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