Recently, the Anoncoin price experienced a huge increase as investors anticipated the long-awaited release of the anonymizing technology known as Zerocoin. However, the Zerocoin developer announced the project would take 2-3 months longer than anticipated. The announcement blindsided many investors, who immediately began liquidating their holdings.

Anoncoin Price Crashes After Developer Delay

On October 19, Zerocoin developer Gnosis made the announcement that Zerocoin would take longer than anticipated.

I underestimated the scope of this project and set too ambitious of a schedule for it. Zerocoin will be probably be ready within 2-3 months, but I don’t want to give any more release dates (either for testnet or mainnet) until I am very, very close. I will not make this mistake again. I will continue to give status updates, and I have made tremendous progress in recent weeks.

Although the Anoncoin price had already been in decline, it took a sharp turn downward following the announcement. Since October 15, the Anoncoin price had hovered around the 268,000 satoshi mark, and on October 19–just prior to the delay–the Anoncoin price was ~240,000 satoshis.

The announcement shocked many investors, and the price immediately crashed. By October 20, the Anoncoin price had fallen to 65,001 satoshis–a daily decline of 73% and a weekly decline of 81%.

Analysis

The problem with investing in most altcoins is their value if based purely on speculation. When delays happen or projects fail, the price plummets because it has no other foundation. Of course, that does not mean the Anoncoin price cannot recover. In fact, Anoncoin is not the only privacy-centric coin to experience frequent delays. Darkcoin’s DarkSend has seen several delays, and though the Darkcoin price has declined, Darkcoin has remained an altcoin heavyweight.

Nevertheless, there is one major difference between Anoncoin and Darkcoin. Unlike Gnosis, Darkcoin developer Evan Duffield revealed his identity to the public. While this does not necessarily make Duffield a better or more trustworthy developer than an anonymous one, most investors have seen enough anonymous developers disappear to become antsy when a developer delays a project. Gnosis certainly has the right to keep his identity private, but potential investors should approach Anoncoin with caution.

What do you think? Comment below!

Disclosure: The author is paid in and holds investments in bitcoin. He is not invested in or affiliated with any of the altcoins discussed in this article. Any advice contained in this article is solely the opinion of the author and does not reflect the views of CCN.com. Neither the author nor CCN.com is liable for your investing decisions, so do your homework and never invest more than you are willing to lose.

Image from Anoncoin BitcoinTalk thread; other images from Shutterstock.