Defunct Crypto: Dead Coins, Scams, and Why They Fail

When a cryptocurrency stops trading, loses its team, and vanishes from exchanges, it becomes defunct crypto, a digital asset with no active development, zero liquidity, and no path to recovery. Also known as dead crypto coins, these projects aren’t just inactive—they’re often traps designed to drain your money and disappear.

Many crypto scams, fraudulent tokens built on hype with no real technology or team masquerade as the next big thing. Take Deutsche Mark (DDM), a fake stablecoin with zero supply and no exchange listings, or Bitstar (BITS), a coin with no trading volume and no updates since 2022. These aren’t glitches—they’re classic exit scams. The team collects funds, shuts down Discord, and vanishes. You won’t find them on CoinMarketCap because they never belonged there in the first place.

Some failed crypto projects, like Monkeyhaircut (MONK) or RBT Rabbit, had a moment of hype but collapsed under their own weight. No utility. No roadmap. No community left to care. They’re not just dead—they’re tombstones for anyone who bought in late. Even tokens tied to games or memes, like Nya (NYA), a meme coin with a 36-trillion supply and no real use case, are risky bets. They’re fun for a laugh, but don’t expect returns. And when you see an "airdrop" for a token with $0 price and no trading history, like CBSN StakeHouse NFT or MDX, it’s almost always a phishing lure.

The pattern is clear: if a coin has no team, no audits, no exchange support, and no reason to exist beyond a flashy website—it’s defunct. And the market keeps churning out new ones. You’ll find dozens in this collection: tokens that promised the moon but delivered nothing. Some were scams. Others were just poorly built. A few were victims of regulation or bad timing. But all of them share one thing—they’re gone. And you don’t want to be the last person holding the bag.

Below, you’ll find real case studies of coins that died, scams that fooled thousands, and the red flags you can spot before it’s too late. No fluff. No hype. Just the truth about what happens when crypto projects fail—and how to avoid becoming another statistic.