Why 99% of cryptocurrencies have become "junk": Market lessons for 2025

Source: TokenPost Original Title: [Editorial] Why 99% of Cryptocurrencies Became ‘Trash’: Lessons from 2025 Original Link: https://www.tokenpost.kr/news/insights/325611 “Excluding Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins, is there even one cryptocurrency project you use daily?”

Few investors can answer this question immediately. This is the awkward reality faced by the market in 2026. Thousands of projects are wrapped in glamorous whitepapers and roadmaps, but what has truly integrated into our lives?

2025 is recorded as the most brutal “extinction year” in cryptocurrency history. According to CoinGecko data, over 11.6 million tokens died in just 2025. This is not due to a harsh market or strict regulations, but because those projects that should never have existed finally found their place.

Most projects have similar life cycles. Raising millions of dollars with intangible products and a seemingly good roadmap. Development is shelved, marketing and hype become priorities, and token prices are driven up. When retail investors pour in money for the word “innovation,” founders and venture capitalists have already sold off their chips and fled. All that remains are tokens turned to waste paper and victims shouting “HODL.”

This is not investing; it’s a “exit strategy” game disguised as a whitepaper.

Among so-called “utility tokens,” 99% actually have no utility at all. Without users, there is no revenue; without revenue, token value can only rely on liquidity from new entrants. This is no different from a Ponzi scheme. When meme coins surge and anyone can issue tokens in a minute, the speed of generating this “garbage” accelerates, ultimately leading to the abandonment of 11.6 million projects.

But the 1% that survive are different. Stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC), as well as Bitcoin and Ethereum with their vast ecosystems, do not need to shout loudly on social media about their prices. They have real products, real users, and real revenue. The products themselves have reached a stage of self-validation.

The market must now change. Promises of “what we will do in the future” are no longer enough. Cryptocurrencies that cannot prove “what is being done now,” “who is actually using it,” and “where the revenue comes from” will be eliminated.

The 2025 massacre is a stern warning to the cryptocurrency market. Where 99% of the bubbles have burst, only the 1% creating real value will survive. Does your portfolio include that 1%, or are you holding someone’s leftover chips to be cleaned up? It’s time to ask yourself calmly.