There are so many cryptocurrencies because creating one costs almost nothing and needs nobody's permission. Bitcoin's code is open source, so anyone can copy it and change it. Smart contract platforms went further: they turned launching a token into a routine operation that does not require building a new blockchain. As of 25 October 2026, CoinGecko's main site shows 22,491 coins tracked. GeckoTerminal, CoinGecko's tracker for on-chain trading pairs, had listed nearly 20.2 million tokens by the end of 2025. Most of them no longer trade. By CoinGecko's count, 53.2% of the tokens ever listed on GeckoTerminal have failed.
How many cryptocurrencies are there?
The answer depends on who is counting and what they count.
- Curated listings. CoinGecko's homepage showed 22,491 coins tracked on 25 October 2026. Projects listed this way passed a review and have an active market.
- Everything that ever traded on-chain. CoinGecko research analyst Shaun Paul Lee reports that GeckoTerminal had "nearly 20.2 million projects" by 2025. This count includes any token that recorded at least one trade, however brief its life.
The gap between roughly 22,000 and roughly 20 million is the short answer to the question. A small group of projects keeps going. A very large number launch, trade for a while and stop.
Why so many get created
1. Bitcoin's code is free to copy
Satoshi Nakamoto announced Bitcoin on a cryptography mailing list on 31 October 2008 with the paper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System". The genesis block is dated 3 January 2009. Bitcoin Core is released under the MIT License, which allows anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the code.
The first projects to use that freedom were forks:
- Namecoin describes itself as "the first fork of Bitcoin". It turned the design into a key/value registration system, aimed at uses such as DNS and identities.
- Litecoin changed a few parameters in Bitcoin's code. Its mainnet source code sets a 2.5-minute block target (
nPowTargetSpacing = 2.5 * 60) and a halving every 840,000 blocks. The genesis block quotes a New York Times headline from 5 October 2011.
2. Disagreements split chains into new coins
Different coins can also come out of a fight inside a single community. Bitcoin Cash was created when "on August 1st, 2017, the chain split at block 478558", after a long argument over whether Bitcoin should scale with larger blocks. Each side kept its own chain, and the result was two coins. Holders of the original coin received balances on both chains.
3. Smart contract platforms made tokens a template
Ethereum's mainnet went live on 30 July 2015 (the Frontier release). Four months later, on 19 November 2015, ERC-20 was proposed as "a standard API for tokens within smart contracts". Under this standard, a new token is a contract that implements a common set of functions: transfer, balance, total supply and approvals. Wallets and applications that already support the standard can then handle the token without new integration work.
Other chains took a similar approach. Solana's documentation says that "all tokens on Solana are effectively data accounts owned by a Token Program." Creating a token there means initialising a mint account under a program that already exists. No new code has to be written.
Once making a token cost this little, the number of tokens became a question of how many people wanted one, not how many could build one.
4. Different jobs need different designs
Many coins exist because they do different things. CoinGecko lists 774 categories. The largest by market value include:
- Smart contract platforms and layer 1s: base blockchains that run applications.
- Stablecoins: tokens designed to track a reference asset, usually the US dollar. CoinGecko put total stablecoin market value at a record $311.0 billion at the end of 2025. In the US, the GENIUS Act (Public Law 119-27, issued 18 July 2025) created a federal framework for payment stablecoins.
- Layer 2 networks: systems that process transactions away from a base chain and rely on that chain for security.
- Decentralised finance (DeFi) and real-world assets (RWA): lending, trading and tokenised versions of off-chain assets.
- Meme coins: tokens with no stated purpose beyond community and attention. This is the category behind most of the recent increase in launches.
5. Launchpads and speculation
Most of the recent growth came from token launchpads. On these platforms, anyone can create a token and start trading it within minutes. CoinGecko's research says annual failures were "in the low six digits" before one such launchpad appeared in 2024. In 2025 alone, 11,564,909 tokens stopped trading.
How making a coin got this cheap
Step through the dated moments in the article that turned launching a cryptocurrency from building a blockchain into a routine operation.
- 31 October 2008Bitcoin paper announcedconfirmed
Satoshi Nakamoto posts "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" to a cryptography mailing list. Bitcoin Core is later released under the MIT License, so anyone may copy, modify and redistribute the code.
- 3 January 2009Bitcoin genesis blockconfirmed
The first Bitcoin block is dated. Early forks such as Namecoin and Litecoin reuse this open-source code with changed parameters.
- 30 July 2015Ethereum mainnet goes liveconfirmed
The Frontier release launches a smart contract platform, so a new token no longer needs its own blockchain.
- 19 November 2015ERC-20 proposedconfirmed
ERC-20 is proposed as "a standard API for tokens within smart contracts". Wallets and applications that support it can handle a new token without new integration work.
- 1 August 2017Bitcoin Cash chain splitconfirmed
After an argument over scaling with larger blocks, the chain splits at block 478558 and one coin becomes two.
- 2024Token launchpads take offconfirmed
Before a launchpad appeared in 2024, yearly failures were "in the low six digits". About 1,382,010 tokens stopped trading in 2024.
- 2025Failures peakconfirmed
11,564,909 tokens stopped trading in 2025, 86.3% of all failures from 2021 to 2025. GeckoTerminal had listed nearly 20.2 million tokens by the end of the year.
- 25 October 2026Two very different countsconfirmed
CoinGecko's curated site shows 22,491 coins tracked. By CoinGecko's count, 53.2% of the tokens ever listed on GeckoTerminal have failed.
This timeline covers only the dated milestones in the article and the token counts from one data provider, CoinGecko and its GeckoTerminal tracker. It does not judge whether any coin is worth holding.
Most of them die
CoinGecko's dead-coin study covers 1 July 2021 to 31 December 2025 (updated 17 April 2026). It counts a token as failed if it was once listed on GeckoTerminal and is no longer actively traded.
| Year | Tokens that stopped trading |
|---|---|
| 2024 | about 1,382,010 |
| 2025 | 11,564,909 |
Failures in 2025 made up 86.3% of all failures between 2021 and 2025. Across all years, 53.2% of the tokens ever listed on GeckoTerminal have failed. The study links the 2025 spike to memecoin turbulence and to the market shock of 10 October 2025.
How to sort the few that matter from the many that don't
These are research steps, not recommendations:
- Ask what it does that existing chains don't. A fork with one changed parameter or a token with no stated function competes only on attention.
- Check whether it trades actively. By CoinGecko's definition, a coin with no active trading is dead.
- Read the primary documents. Look for a whitepaper, public source code and the licence. Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum all publish theirs.
- Look at who controls supply. On token-program chains, the mint authority is set when the token is created. Check whether someone can still create more.
- Check stablecoin claims against the issuer's disclosures. Where it applies, also check against the GENIUS Act framework.
Limitations: the token counts come from one data provider, CoinGecko and its GeckoTerminal tracker, and other trackers use different listing rules.
