Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes that the direction of blockchain applications often mirrors the intentions and ethics of their creators. He cites that projects like Pump.fun are derived from bad social philosophy.
In a recent discussion, he highlighted how the impact—positive or negative—of crypto projects is shaped by the values driving their development.
Buterin Says Pump.fun and Terra Reflect What Not to Build in Crypto
Buterin praised a handful of decentralized applications that align with Ethereum’s long-term vision. These include Railgun, Farcaster, Polymarket, and the messaging app Signal.
On the flip side, he criticized platforms such as Pump.fun, Terra/Luna, and the collapsed FTX exchange, describing them as harmful examples of what not to build.
“The differences in what the app does stem from differences in beliefs in developers’ heads about what they are here to accomplish,” Buterin explained.
Vitalik Buterin Talking about Social Philosophy in Crypto. Source: Warpcast
In the past, he noted that tools like Polymarket could move beyond betting on elections and serve as useful mechanisms for improving decision-making in governance, media, and even scientific research.
Previously, the Ethereum co-founder had warned about schemes that prioritize hype over substance, such as Terra/Luna and FTX. He has also consistently urged the crypto space, especially DeFi, to build with ethical intent and long-term utility in mind.
How Developer Ethics Shape Blockchain’s Future
To explain his views on Ethereum’s unique development path, Buterin compared it to C++, a general-purpose programming language.
Unlike C++, Ethereum is only partially general-purpose. Many of its core innovations, like account abstraction or the shift to proof-of-stake, rely heavily on developers’ commitment to Ethereum’s broader mission.
“Ethereum L1 is not quite in that position: someone who doesn’t believe in decentralization would not add light clients, or FOCIL, or (good forms of) account abstraction; someone who doesn’t mind energy waste would not spend half a decade moving to PoS… But the EVM opcodes might have been roughly the same either way. So Ethereum is perhaps 50% general-purpose,” Buterin said.
Buterin furthered that Ethereum apps are around 80% special-purpose. Because of this, the ethical framework and goals of the people building them play a critical role in shaping what the network becomes.
In the minds of many investors, Bitcoin (BTC) is like a dream of wealth—a magical asset capable of growing hundreds of percent annually and sending its value “to the moon” with million-dollar price tags.
Analyst Willy Woo believes that Bitcoin’s boom times may be over. However, not everyone agrees.
Willy Woo predicts Bitcoin’s CAGR will decline and stabilize at 8%
Woo shared a chart titled “Bitcoin Annualised Returns,” showing that Bitcoin’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) has dropped sharply, from over 100% in 2017 to around 30–40% after 2020.
That was the period when major institutions, including corporations and governments, began accumulating Bitcoin.
“People think BTC is like a magical unicorn that climbs to infinity on moonbeams. Here’s the actual CAGR chart. We are well past the 2017 year where we’d see many 100s of percent growth,” Willy Woo said.
Woo forecasts that Bitcoin’s CAGR will continue to decline over the next 15–20 years and eventually stabilize around 8%. This rate aligns with long-term monetary growth (5%) and GDP growth (3%). He emphasized that even with a lower CAGR, Bitcoin will still outperform most other publicly traded assets.
However, investor and author Fred Krueger disagreed. He pointed out that Bitcoin has already increased 7x from its December 2022 low, now trading at $103,000 as of May 2025.
Additionally, in a recent interview, Arthur Hayes went even further. He predicted that Bitcoin would reach $1 million before the end of Donald Trump’s current term. He expects the price to hit $250,000 by the end of 2025, representing a 1,000% increase in just four years.
GDP and liquidity growth seen as key drivers of Bitcoin’s future gains
Woo’s prediction is largely based on GDP expansion and monetary growth. Meanwhile, Paul Guerra, Head of Social at RealVision, offered deeper insights on the matter.
Discussing liquidity, he argued that traditional diversification strategies may no longer work in today’s market environment. That’s because assets like stocks, bonds, Bitcoin, and real estate now tend to move together, driven by a single key factor: liquidity.
“The true driver of markets is liquidity — the amount of money flowing through the system,” Paul said.
The Global Liquidity Index is currently growing at 8% annually. To understand liquidity, Paul suggested that we must first understand GDP. He presented a formula for GDP growth: GDP Growth = Population Growth + Productivity Growth + Debt Growth.
But today, population growth and productivity are declining worldwide. As a result, governments are being forced to inject liquidity to sustain GDP and support rising debt.
“Populations are AGING. Productivity gains are FLAT. Debt is EXPLODING. To keep GDP alive and service people’s debt, governments have only one tool: Pump liquidity,” Paul explained.
Bitcoin Price And GMI Total Liquidity Index. Source: Paul Guerra.
As a result, liquidity is expected to increase at an even faster rate. Paul predicted that Bitcoin could reach $300,000 by the end of 2025 and enter what he calls the “Banana Zone.” This term describes periods of massive asset price increases fueled by abundant liquidity.
Historical examples include Bitcoin’s 19,900% gain from 2013–2017, and Ethereum’s 699,900% surge in previous cycles.
Still, these analyses focus heavily on macroeconomic factors while overlooking potential technical risks. For instance, concerns are growing that advancements in quantum computing could threaten trust in Bitcoin’s long-term viability.
Over 50% of all cryptocurrencies ever launched since 2021 are now defunct. An even more alarming trend is emerging in 2025, where the percentage of failed tokens launched this year has reached the same level in just the first five months.
That percentage will naturally rise with more than half of the year left. Representatives from Binance and Dune Analytics told BeInCrypto that these failures are just another reminder of the need to launch viable projects, backed by solid tokenomics and a robust community.
Ghost Tokens Skyrocket
A recent CoinGecko report revealed some jaw-dropping data. Of the approximately 7 million cryptocurrencies listed on GeckoTerminal since 2021, 3.7 million have subsequently died.
Several factors are considered when evaluating whether a coin has reached its end.
“A coin is classified as ‘dead’ when it loses all utility, liquidity, and community engagement. Key indicators include near-zero trading volume, abandoned development (no GitHub commits for 6+ months), and a price drop of 99%+ from its all-time high. Teams often vanish without warning—social media accounts go dormant, domains expire,” Alsie Liu, Content Manager at Dune Analytics, told BeInCrypto.
Half of all tokens launched since 2021 have died. Source: CoinGecko.
A significant 53% of listed cryptocurrencies have failed, with most collapses concentrated in 2024 and 2025. Notably, the over 1.82 million tokens already stopped trading in 2025 significantly outpaced the approximately 1.38 million failures recorded throughout 2024.
With seven months out of the year ahead, this trend of increasing failures in the current year will continue to grow.
CoinGecko specifically suggested a potential link between economic concerns like tariffs and recession fears, noting a surge in meme coin launches after a certain election, with subsequent market volatility likely contributing to their decline.
However, not all responsibility can be placed on a greater economic downturn. Other aspects can contribute to these project failures.
“Common factors include inability to find product market fit leading to negligible interest from users or investors, or project teams that focus too much on short-term speculation with no long-term roadmap, and sometimes abandonment by developers (rug pulls). Broader issues like fraudulent intentions, weak user traction, novelty-driven hype, financial shortfalls, poor execution, strong competition, or security failures also contribute to project failure,” a Binance spokesperson told BeInCrypto.
The rapid rise in ghost tokens also came with the exponential launch of projects en masse, particularly since the start of 2024.
Analyzing the Life-Death Ratio
Last year was novel in its own right following the proliferation of meme coins. This new narrative emerged particularly after the launch of Pump.fun, a Solana platform that allows anyone to launch a token at a minimal cost.
According to CoinGecko data, 3 million new tokens were listed on CoinGecko in 2024 alone. Half of these projects died, but the other half survived. However, the situation in 2025 appears less stable.
The difference between token launches and failures in 2025 is minimal. Source: CoinGecko.
While the number of new token launches remains high, the number of failures is nearly equivalent, with launches only marginally exceeding deaths by about a thousand.
“Ecosystems with low barriers to token creation see the highest number of ghost coins. In general, platforms that make it very easy and cheap to launch new tokens see the most abandoned coins. During this cycle, Solana’s meme coin surge (e.g., via token launchpads like Pump.fun) drove a flood of new tokens, many of which lost user traction and daily activity once initial hype faded,” Binance’s spokesperson explained.
As of March 5, the meme coin market capitalization had sharply decreased to $54 billion, marking a 56.8% drop from its peak of $125 billion on December 5, 2024. This downturn was accompanied by a significant decrease in trading activity, with volumes falling by 26.2% in the preceding month alone.
Certain token categories have been hit harder than others.
Music and Video Tokens Among the Hardest-Hit Categories
A 2024 BitKE report indicated that video and music were prominent categories with many failed cryptocurrency projects, reaching a 75% failure rate. This outsized percentage suggests that niche-focused crypto ventures often face challenges in achieving long-term viability.
“These niches face adoption and utility gaps. Music tokens struggle to compete with Spotify/YouTube, while ‘listen-to-earn’ models often lack demand. As more mainstream celebrities get into the space without knowing much about blockchain technology, tokens have become the new cash-grab business,” Liu explained.
Binance’s spokesperson noted that legal and technical hurdles, such as music licensing and the significant resources needed for video delivery, complicated the scaling of decentralized alternatives.
They further explained that many projects struggled to remain sustainable without substantial user adoption or strong network effects.
“This highlights that a good concept alone is not enough; crypto projects must also compete with entrenched Web2 platforms, navigate complex industry challenges, and deliver real-world utility to succeed. Without aligning with user behavior and market needs, even well-intentioned initiatives risk fading into ghost tokens,” Binance told BeInCrypto.
Despite the discouraging number of failed tokens, this situation offers important insights into building resilient projects that withstand unfavorable market conditions.
What Can We Learn From Catastrophic Token Collapses?
Prospective token creators can learn significant lessons from once-popular projects that ultimately failed. The negative outcomes experienced by these ventures, particularly in severe instances, can motivate the development of new projects responsibly and avoid similar pitfalls.
Binance referred to notorious ghost coin cases BitConnect and OneCoin.
“BitConnect, once a top-10 coin, collapsed in 2018 after being exposed as a Ponzi scheme promising ~1% daily returns. Investors lost nearly $2 billion. OneCoin, raising ~$4 billion, never had a real blockchain and relied on aggressive multi-level marketing before collapsing. Both cases highlight the dangers of projects built on hype, unrealistic promises, and lack of verifiable technology,” Binance’s spokesperson explained.
While concerning, the rising number of ghost coins serves as a crucial reminder that discernible warning signs often precede the downfall of these cryptocurrencies.
These cases underline the necessity of rigorous research, validating underlying principles, and maintaining a cautious perspective, especially when investment gains appear unrealistically high. Prioritizing risk management and sustainable long-term factors should outweigh short-term speculative trading.
Binance particularly highlighted the importance of “Do Your Own Research” (DYOR) when evaluating crypto projects.
“Practically, this means reviewing the whitepaper, assessing whether the project solves a real problem, verifying the team’s credibility, examining tokenomics and supply distribution, and checking community and development activity,” Binance said, adding that “In essence, DYOR is about empowerment and protection. It helps investors identify solid projects and avoid scams or ghost tokens by spotting red flags early. Given how fast crypto markets move, personal due diligence remains essential for navigating the space safely and successfully.”
Ultimately, the prevalence of ghost tokens highlights a critical truth for crypto participants: thorough research and fundamental value are paramount for identifying lasting projects.
