The year 2025 was marked by extreme volatility in the cryptocurrency market and a meme coin frenzy that led to numerous project closures, leaving the industry with the highest number of token failures on record. In 2025 alone, 11.6 million tokens disappeared from the market, blamed on indiscriminate token minting by meme coin launchpads such as Pump.fun. The number of tokens that ceased trading last year exceeded 11 million, the highest single-year figure on record. On October 10, 2025, roughly $190 billion of leveraged positions were liquidated in a market drop, a development that analysts said was a primary driver behind the decline and particularly painful for meme coins.
Meme coins have long been viewed as high-risk, high-reward bets, but the risk materialized in 2025. The advent of mass-token-issuance tools led to a flood of ‘no-content’ tokens saturating the market, presenting as short-lived fads. The launchpad’s easy issuance feature was cited as lifting the flood of low-quality memes. In early 2026, signs of a rebound appeared for meme coins, with market capitalization and trading volume recovering.
Data from CoinMarketCap show meme coin total market cap rising from $380 billion on December 29, 2025 to about $477 billion by January 5, 2026, before easing to around $437 billion. Trading volume also surged, with daily meme coin volume jumping from $21.7 billion to $87 billion—roughly a 300% increase—though current levels sit around $36.9 billion. Meme coins remain a double-edged asset that can drive megatrends or be discarded en masse depending on market sentiment. Last year’s collapse underscores the dangers of unvetted projects and indiscriminate token issuance, and as 2026 begins, some recovery signals prompt investors to reassess risk and opportunity.
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