Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), and NEM (XEM): one of these coins has dropped the most since 2018 started. Which coin do you think it is?

The crypto market has been all over the place since 2018 started. Some coins have risen. Some coins have plummeted. The industry itself has been put through the grindstone. Crypto ads are being banned left, right, and center by many major companies. Are we getting regulations or aren't we? There are a lot of questions floating around about the future of crypto. While we can't answer where crypto will go, we can answer where it's been.

I was curious to see what coin had dropped the most since 2018 began, so I started doing some calculations. I looked only at the coins that are currently listed as the top 20 cryptocurrencies, using the token's selling price at the time of writing compared to its price listed from the beginning of the year. This means that there may be other coins outside of the current top 20 that lost more. All data was taken from CoinMarketCap

Let's dig in! Which coin lost the most, and why?

The Loser

Ripple, Cardano, and NEM were the top three largest losers since the beginning of 2018 and are separated by only a fraction of a decimal point.

Ultimately, however, Cardano has lost the most since 2018 started. ADA's price dropped by 78.6% from the beginning of 2018 to now.

More specifically, Cardano lost 78.629%. Ripple was very near to tying with Cardano, Ripple having lost 78.551%. NEM lost 78.289% - so, all three coins were very close to one another in terms of percentage loss.

A few other coins in the top 20 came close as well. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) lost 73.799%. IOTA (MIOTA) lost 71.348%. Dash lost 71.438%. Qtum lost 77.163%. All other tokens lost less than 70%.

NEM's percentage loss likely has to do with the Coincheck hack , in which many NEM owners had their NEM stolen from their accounts. However, the hack occurred at the end of January, and NEM had already started declining before then. Regardless, the hack certainly wouldn't have helped matters.

Ripple began dropping off near the beginning of January, shortly after reaching its all-time high on January 4th, 2018. Ripple went from almost reaching $4.00 to now selling below $1.00. Ripple has received some flack in the past about whether it can ever be fully decentralized given its many partnerships with centralized entities such as banking institutions.

Ripple's CEO believes that in order for crypto to flourish, it needs to work within regulations - not always the most popular sentiment among crypto enthusiasts, even if, perhaps, he makes a good argument. These beliefs may, in part, have contributed to people bowing out of their Ripple investments and therefore causing XRP's extreme drop year-to-date.

As for Cardano, it looks like a lot of people invested at the start of the new year, possibly experiencing FOMO (fear of missing out) on the growing project. ADA reached a high of $1.27 on January 4th, 2018, before falling off as early as the same day. These same FOMO investors may have eventually begun panic selling once they saw that Cardano was no longer growing.

Uneducated investing has taken a toll on many cryptocurrencies, and for projects like Cardano, people need to start understanding that it's a long-term investment . Gains won't happen overnight. Patience is necessary, and panic selling doesn't help anyone.

Cardano, Ripple, and NEM are the losers of 2018 right now. Is there any positive news?

The Winner

It's not all doom and gloom though! Out of the top 20 cryptocurrencies, there were two coins that had actually managed to make gains since the start of 2018.

Both Binance Coin (BNB) and VeChain (VEN) have grown since the beginning of the year. Binance Coin grew the most, at 41.3%. VeChain grew 14.8%.

Individual Coin Breakdown

Here is the breakdown of each individual coin in the top 20, listed in order of their ranking. Percentages are rounded.

Bitcoin (BTC): from $14,112.20 to $7,014.17 = -50.3%

Ethereum (ETH): from $743.05 to $385.72 = -48.1%

Ripple (XRP): from $2.30 to $0.493327 = -78.5%

Bitcoin Cash (BCH): from $2,534.82 to $664.16 = -73.8%

Litecoin (LTC): from $231.67 to $118.68 = -48.8%

EOS: from $8.77 to $5.78 = -34.1%

Stellar (XLM): from $0.360422 to $0.227644 = -36.8%

Cardano (ADA): from $0.718847 to $0.153624 = -78.6%

NEO: from $76.19 to $48.64 = -36.2%

IOTA (MIOTA): from $3.56 to $1.02 = -71.3%

Monero (XMR): from $349.55 to $178.30 = -49.0%

Dash: from $1,054.07 to $301.06 = -71.4%

Tether (USDT): from $1.01 to $1.00 = -1.0%

TRON (TRX): from $0.044682 to $0.033916 = -24.1%

NEM (XEM): from $1.04 to $0.225793 = -78.3%

Binance Coin (BNB): from $8.63 to $12.19 = +41.3%

Ethereum Classic (ETC): from $28.05 to $13.97 = -50.2%

VeChain (VEN): from $2.30 to $2.64 = +14.8%

Qtum: from $62.31 to $14.23 = -77.2%

OmiseGO (OMG): from $19.60 to $8.55 = -56.4%

If You Liked This Article Click To Share