2025 was a dark year for token launches. According to a recent report, 85% of cryptocurrencies created last year suffered huge declines. How can this be explained, and which sectors were most affected?
New cryptocurrencies fell sharply in 2025
According to a study published by Memento Research based on their analysis last December, 2025 was not a good year to launch a cryptocurrency. The vast majority of new cryptos saw their prices fall by an average of 74% between their launch and the end of the year.
We tracked 118 token launches in 2025—and the numbers are brutal: 84.7% (100 out of 118) are below their valuation at the time of the initial token launch. About 4 out of 5 launches are in the red.
Furthermore, this is an average: high-profile launches have performed even worse than average. The median decline is 76.8%. Most tokens launched are therefore between 70% and 90% down, an area described as a “graveyard” by Memento Research:
Some sectors are doing better than others
Not all tokens launched in 2025 are created equal. According to Memento Research, some sectors have seen successful launches. This is the case for tokens linked to perpetual DEXs, which are booming this year. Gaming-related tokens are also doing rather well, although there are too few of them to identify a real trend.
Conversely, some sectors have clearly failed to generate the hoped-for enthusiasm. The big loser is the field of decentralized science (DeSci), whose tokens have fallen by an average of 95%. There have also been failures in the stablecoin sector (-70%) and artificial intelligence (-52%). Infrastructure, decentralized finance (DeFi), and consumer tokens are also in the red:
A recent report by Artemis, which categorizes tokens differently, confirms the trend. According to the report, only two sectors were spared from the decline in 2025: tokens linked to exchange platforms (which include perpetual DEXs) and tokens linked to privacy protocols:
Overvalued at launch?
The Memento Research report concludes that the prices set at the time of the token generation event (TGE) are likely too optimistic:
Initial valuations are set far too high and above their fair value, resulting in poorer long-term performance with larger percentage declines.
For investors, this also represents a paradigm shift: the TGE no longer represents an “early” position and would be considered a high point, at least for projects with shaky fundamentals.
If you plan to buy tokens at the time of the TGE, you are implicitly betting on finding rare exceptions, because the underlying trend is frankly bad.
This also highlights the excesses of 2025. With record highs and renewed enthusiasm for the sector, projects that were not always solid flourished. As we have entered a phase of consolidation, it is possible that the trend will diminish in the coming months.
