More than half of the cryptocurrencies tracked on GeckoTerminal have failed: 53.2%, according to CoinGecko Research. The finding highlights an uncomfortable reality for crypto founders: entering the market has become easier, but staying relevant has become considerably harder.
The same research found that 11.6 million tokens failed in 2025, representing 86.3% of recorded failures between 2021 and 2025. The methodology counts tokens previously traded on GeckoTerminal that are no longer actively traded. While not every failed token represents a serious business, the figures reveal just how crowded the market has become.
For crypto projects, launching a product is only the beginning. Building awareness, establishing credibility, and maintaining visibility are increasingly important parts of staying competitive.
A Launch Is No Longer Enough
The barriers to creating a cryptocurrency have fallen significantly. CoinGecko’s research shows that nearly 20.2 million projects were listed on GeckoTerminal by 2025, compared with 428,383 in 2021. CoinGecko’s cryptocurrency failure research illustrates the scale of this expansion.
This creates a difficult environment for new entrants. A project can have a functioning protocol, an experienced team, and a legitimate use case while remaining practically invisible outside its immediate community.
Potential users face a constant stream of token launches, protocol announcements, partnerships, and technical updates. Simply publishing an announcement on social media is rarely enough to distinguish one project from thousands of others.
Product quality remains essential, but it cannot generate awareness on its own. Teams also need a consistent way to communicate what they are building and why it matters.
Credibility Matters More Than Noise
Crypto audiences have become increasingly cautious about promotional claims. A polished website or a large social media following does not necessarily demonstrate that a protocol is secure, useful, or sustainable.
Projects need to support their public statements with verifiable information. Product releases, security improvements, governance decisions, and measurable ecosystem developments provide more meaningful reasons for people to pay attention than generic marketing messages.
Independent industry coverage can also help projects reach audiences beyond their existing followers. The value comes from making relevant developments accessible to readers who might otherwise never encounter the project.
This requires a different approach to communication: less emphasis on generating excitement and more focus on explaining actual progress.
Distribution Is Part of the Strategy
Publishing an announcement on a project blog is only one step. Different audiences consume crypto news through specialist publications, regional industry outlets, and journalists covering particular sectors such as DeFi, stablecoins, and blockchain infrastructure.
Reaching these audiences requires more than distributing identical announcements everywhere. Teams need to consider publication relevance, readership, editorial context, and the substance of the information being shared.
A structured approach to outlet-by-outlet news distribution can help ensure that announcements reach publications whose audiences have a genuine interest in the subject. The underlying facts should remain consistent, while the framing reflects why the development matters to each readership.
The distinction is important: distribution should improve access to useful information, not manufacture the appearance of popularity.
A good test is whether an announcement would interest someone who has no intention of purchasing the project’s token. If it communicates a meaningful product release, technical improvement, or governance development, it probably has broader informational value.
Regulation Makes Responsible Communication Essential
Greater visibility also brings greater responsibility. In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority’s guidance on cryptoasset financial promotions explains how communications should meet the standards of being fair, clear, and not misleading.
The guidance covers a broad range of communication channels, including websites, social media, and mobile applications. The financial promotions regime came into force on October 8, 2023.
For crypto businesses, this means communication strategies must account for regulatory requirements alongside marketing objectives. Public statements about products, token functionality, potential benefits, and associated risks need appropriate scrutiny, particularly when targeting consumers in regulated markets.
Credibility is difficult to establish when promotional claims exaggerate progress or overlook important risks. Responsible communication is therefore not simply a marketing consideration; it is part of building a sustainable business.
Building a Sustainable Visibility Strategy
Crypto teams do not need to publish something every day. They need a repeatable process for communicating meaningful developments and making information accessible.
Several practical habits can help:
- Prioritize substance: Focus on actual product releases, security improvements, and governance developments.
- Support claims with evidence: Reference technical documentation, repositories, security reports, and relevant on-chain data.
- Communicate accurately: Clearly distinguish completed milestones from future plans and proposed features.
- Choose relevant publications: Prioritize outlets whose readership matches the project’s sector and subject matter.
- Review promotional claims: Check factual accuracy, risk disclosures, and applicable regulatory requirements before publication.
These practices cannot guarantee that a project will survive. They can, however, help close the gap between what a team is building and what the wider market understands about it.
Visibility Is a Long-Term Responsibility
The scale of cryptocurrency failures challenges the assumption that launching a token automatically creates an audience. In an increasingly crowded industry, attention must be earned through consistent communication, credible information, and demonstrable progress.
The projects that remain relevant will not necessarily be the ones making the most noise. They will be the ones giving the market a clear reason to listen—and enough evidence to believe what they hear.