Since the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009, the past decade has seen an explosion of various crypto coins.
Today, there are tens of thousands of cryptocurrencies in circulation. But whether it’s due to scams, abandonment, ICO failure, or just the general ebb and flow of the market – many coins don’t stand the test of time.
To tell this story, CoinKickoff reviewed the life of 2,400 now-dead coins and created a series of visualizations analyzing 10 years of dead coins.
Dead coins are digital assets or tokens of projects that has ceased to exist. A coin can become “dead” due to a variety of reasons such as its development being halted, having no one that uses or trades it, have insufficient funding, being exposed as a scam and more.
Key findings from the study include:
- 704 now-dead coins started in circulation in the crypto-boom of 2017, more than the 224 established in 2016.
- 2018 was the sector’s most fatal year for cryptocurrency, as 751 coins became defunct.
- The highest mortality rate for crypto can be found in 2014, 76.5% of the 793 coins are no longer in circulation.
- 551 of the 793 coins established in 2014 were abandoned. No other year has seen so many currencies lose as much trade interest.
- Just 16 crypto coins have been abandoned since 2020.
Volume of dead crypto coins by start year
According to the study, 91% of coins established in 2014 eventually died due to low trade volume or abandonment. With the notable exception of meme currency Dogecoin, many opportunistic attempts to corner the early crypto market ended in failure.
Volume of dead crypto coins by death year
According to the study, 30% of the 751 coins that died in 2018 were fraudulent — the highest of any year in the last decade. The most notable ICO scams were the Vietnamese coins PinCoin and iFan. Local journalists exposed the firms for scamming as many as 32,000 investors to the tune of $660 million, which police in Ho Chi Minh City subsequently investigated.
Proportion of crypto coins started each year that died
Cryptocurrency has demonstrated that it can disrupt traditional banking through trading and investing, but the industry has a history of high-profile failures. According to a study by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), with a lifespan of just 1.22 years, 92% of all blockchain projects ever launched are still operational today.
Proportion of crypto coins started each year that died from abandonment or low volume
The data shows that crypto’s first price boom in 2013 led to the most abandoned currency. 61.1% of coins from 2013 and 69.5% from 2014 have since been neglected. However, recent trends suggest that currencies are losing interest less frequently, as just 16 coins since 2020 have been removed from the market due to lack of investment. Despite this, there are fears that 2022’s major slump in crypto value will see more coin abandonments in the future.
Proportion of dead crypto coins started each year that were scam coins
The Federal Trade Commission reports that since the start of 2021, more than 46,000 people have become victims of crypto scams, losing over $1 billion in total. Renewed interest in the market following 2021’s latest price surges has led to a wave of crypto crime — to the tune of $14 billion, according to Chainanalysis.
Despite this, less than 2% of coins established since 2019 have been outed as scam coins. The market reached its peak in 2017, when 17% of currencies were fraudulent. Fraudsters took $490 million during the year’s ICO bubble, and the Securities and Exchange Commission continues to investigate crimes from this period.
Proportion of crypto coins started each year that failed ICO
Research from consulting firm GreySpark Partners found that nearly half of all ICOs launched in 2017 and 2018 failed to raise any funds, and the susceptibility of the practice to fraud eventually led to increased federal regulation with harsh penalties for abuses in the industry. Since 2009, only 5 coins have had failed ICOs.
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