Cryptocurrency tracking site OnChainFX allows users to browse price data for every cryptocurrency in the industry. Using their data, traders can now see which cryptocurrencies have fallen the most from the all-time high (ATH) prices.
The list is below, and shows the current price, as well as the ATH price, days since ATH, percent down since ATH, and how much the cryptocurrency’s price would have to multiply in order to reach ATH again.
At this point, you might be asking what made these coins tank so badly. Starting with #1, ZCL and BTCP were victims of fork hype. When BTCP developers announced they would airdrop BTCP to ZCL and BTC holders, ZCL prices pumped to astronomical levels. Once the fork happened, and the hype died down, prices for both slowly dwindled away.
Bitcoin Diamond has a similar story, created in late 2017, BTCD was supposed to be a faster, cheaper version of BTC. As you can see from the chart, that didn’t work out, and forked coins once valued at $59 are now being sold for less than $2.
As for the other cryptocurrencies, it’s hard to determine what really happened. Some of them had lackluster development teams, suffered maniuplation in price, or had an unenthusiastic community. Either way, looking at these coins should teach everyone a thing or two about investing.
Lessons Learned
First thing, it should be clear that no matter how far an asset’s price has fallen, it can still go lower. Until the price is literally zero dollars/satoshis, like Bitconnect (see chart below). There is no such thing as a price floor, no matter what the chart looks like.
Next, this should be a reminder to stay away from illiquid investments. With altcoins, there is much less buy and sell activity happening, especially as prices dwindle. This means that without buy support, investors might not be able to exit their positions without pushing the price down even further.
Lastly, this chart shows that “Keep Calm And HODL On!” might not be the best investment strategy. A 99% drawdown is absolutely ridiculous, and means terrible losses for the community members of losing cryptocurrencies. There’s nothing wrong with selling your cryptocurrencies and buying back later.
To finish on a more positive note, here are the top 10 performers throughout this treacherous bear market.
Although these numbers might not seem much better, they are when you consider the massive difference between percentages. For example, let’s pretend someone invested $1,000 in BTC and ZCL at their respective peaks. That $1,000 in BTC would now be worth $310, while the ZCL would now be worth $14. That’s a massive difference.
This difference can be confirmed by the breakeven multiple. ZCL would have to pull a 73x in order to reach its previous ATH. Meanwhile, BTC only needs to go up 3.2x. That is a huge disparity, and one that investors should seriously consider.
