For whom the bell tolls: charting crypto coin deaths over the last decade

In the last decade or so, how many times have you heard of a hot new cryptocurrency only for it to disappear into the ether shortly after? If you’re as terminally online as I am, then the answer is umpteen times.

That’s not an exact measurement, but luckily, the folks at Visual Capitalist have come up with a handy chart that shows how many coins have failed each year since 2013.

Based on Visual Capitalist’s definition, a cryptocurrency dies or fails when:
1) It is exposed as a scam
2) It was intended only as a joke
3) Its initial coin offering (ICO) tanks
4) When trading volume drops below US$1,000 over a three-month period

The data reveals that at least 2,383 crypto coins died between 2013 and 2022, which may sound like a staggering number to some.

Interestingly, 2018 saw the most failures: 751 went kaput that year, possibly because Bitcoin prices topped US$1,000 for the first time. This bullish market, in turn, spurred the creation of many new coins.