Some small coins and tokens are still alive, however, with the potential to scam more users. The low-level activity and the presence of EtherDelta and other decentralized exchanges, however, do not expose many crypto investors to these coins and token.
A look at the history of cryptocurrency in 2018 shows that Bitcoin (BTC) has risen 90 times from a “dead” designation in the media, data from industry news and 99bitcoins information portal.
According to the fabled Bitcoin Obituaries section of the site, which tracks media claims that Bitcoin has collapsed, nearly 100 such claims came up last year, as BTC / USD plunged from approximately $20,000 in December 2017 to $3,130. In contrast, a log of altcoins that have disappeared from the market for various reasons now contains almost 1,000 records.
The database, Dead Coins, segregates assets that have failed due to hacks, scams or that have simply been “deceased” and coins that have not served a sincere purpose according to their criteria. The website enables anyone to claim a “mortal” coin. Combined, according to Dead Coins, the total number of altcoins that will probably never come back alive has now reached 934 — the total number of cryptocurrencies with a measurable market cap is currently 2,073, CoinMarketCap data shows.
A closer look at the Dead Coins listings shows that not everyone agrees that their residents have always moved to a better place. OneCoin, the notorious project referred to by several governments as a Ponzi or pyramid scheme, is listed in the Dead Scams section, together with a comment calling for evidence and facts to be supported.
This is not the first digital asset termination. In the past, periods of optimism and bull markets have caused many types of coins to be created. At one point anonymous coins could be created by anyone and thousands of them were built and died.
In 2018, it became increasingly difficult to obtain an exchange list, which meant that even an ambitious but newly created coin lacked liquidity. Delistings damaged many coins’ prices and liquidity in 2018, including Bytecoin (BCN), which renewed its marketing efforts but failed due to high volatility. Poloniex also cut a portion of the crypto ecosystem by delisting a number of coins because of low activity.
Considerable scams like BitConnect and DavorCoin were among the coins that died in 2018. Some assets have, however, been proven resilient. Despite many hard forks and a relatively strong altcoin season, Bitcoin (BTC) remained unchallenged in 2018. Ethereum (ETH) has survived, at least for the time being, and is one of the largest cryptographic organizations in the world.
There are other coins and projects with headwinds. ICOs like Civil went as far as returning funds, and the Basis stablecoin also returned funds to its backers, after regulations prevented the launch of an algorithmic stablecoin.