Approximately 1,000 different cryptocurrency-related projects failed in 2018, according to data from DeadCoins and Coinopsy. Some of them were relatively well-known bear market victims.
Many of the dead crypto projects were outright scams which were orchestrated under the guise of initial coin offerings (ICOs). Included in DeadCoins and Coinpsy’s long list of abandoned and/or fraudulent digital currency schemes is BitConnect, which is considered one of the largest crypto-related Ponzi scheme scams in history.
Coinopsy: 483 Inactive Digital Currency Projects
Deadcoins, which has compiled one of the most comprehensive information sources on inactive cryptos, revealed there are at least 934 digital currencies that are now dead. In July 2018, DeadCoins reported about 800 abandoned crypto tokens. Meanwhile, Coinopsy has found 483 digital currency projects that are no longer active.
According to Coinopsy, a crypto may be considered dead if its token or coin has been abandoned by its founders, was a scam, and/or its website is dead. A crypto project may also be considered dead if its coin has no trading volume or transaction validating nodes to support it, Coinopsy noted. If there are unresolved technical issues with software supporting the cryptocurrency such as problems with wallets used to store it, then the crypto may be considered inactive.
Notably, Coinopsy has categorized dead coins as: ICO Dead Coins, Joke Dead Coins, Abandoned Dead Coins, and Scam Dead Coins. There are currently 113 ICO Dead Coins identified by Coinopsy, meaning these projects launched an ICO but never seemed to have delivered a product or updates regarding their platform’s ongoing development. Crypto tokens may also be classified as dead ICO coins (by Coinopsy) if they were used to carry out pump-and-dump schemes or other types of market manipulation, while not seeing any real adoption.
Wall Street Journal Finds Plagiarized Whitepapers
A Joke dead coin, according to Coinopsy, is any crypto launched with the intention of just being a joke and no serious plans of becoming a useful digital asset. There are presently 17 coins listed as joke cryptos on Coinopsy. Additionally, Coinopsy found at least 40 cryptocurrency projects that were scams and 313 abandoned coins.
Coinopsy explains that a token may be considered dead if it ranks below 1000 in terms of market capitalization for 3 consecutive months. A token whose trading volume is below $1,000 for 3 months is also dead, Coinopsy noted.
Recently, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) looked into inactive crypto projects as well. WSJ’s latest research findings showed that more than 15% of crypto projects that raised funds via ICOs during 2017 and 2018 had plagiarized whitepapers or just copied ideas from other cryptos. There were also a fairly large number of ICO projects that had promised “improbable returns” and then failed to deliver, the WSJ revealed.
