These Are the Worst Performing Cryptocurrencies of 2018 - So Far

2018 has been a tough year for cryptocurrencies. It all started so promisingly, as January broke with the promise of $3 ripple and, in tron, an altcoin that was up 14,000% in 30 days. Things swiftly went south from there, and have been sinking ever since. Judged by their all-time high (ATH), the following coins are 2018’s greatest fallen angels.

Also read: Chinese Investors Use Wechat Brokers to Bypass ICO Ban

Meet 2018’s Worst in Class

Having shed $600 billion in three months, the cryptocurrency markets are having a torrid time. They’ll rally eventually, and when they do, more all-time highs may even be back on the agenda. With every single cryptocurrency mired in the red, singling out altcoins for underperforming seems a little unfair. But even without obsessing over USD value, analyzing the coins that have dropped the furthest from their ATH reveals 2018’s most over-hyped assets.

Recording the percentage drop and number of days since a coin reached its all-time high has become a popular metric on crypto tracker sites. In addition to Onchainfx, there’s now a dedicated site in the form of ATHcoinindex.com. Excluding coins whose ATH was fleetingly achieved as the result of a pump and dump, the biggest losers of this year is plain to see.

Lying in the Gutter While Looking at the Moon

Bitcoin Diamond: Astonishingly, someone once paid $105 for this garbage. It’s currently trading at $2.19. That’s a 98% retrace.

Bitcoin Gold: Spot the recurring theme. Bitcoin forks that add no real value have been hit the hardest. BTG somehow once traded at over $500. Now it’s sitting at $45, and even that feels expensive.

Einsteinium: This shitcoin has gone from $2.83 to $0.11 in 101 days, and the team have only got themselves to blame. The coin dumped following a “big announcement” that proved to be anything of the sort, and the crypto bear market took care of the rest.

Siacoin: It’s hard not to feel sorry for sia, which has had a tough year, what with Bitmain ASICs threatening its algorithm and increased competition from decentralized storage tokens. Sia’s down 90% in just 83 days.

NEM: NEM’s 2018 resembles Britney Spears’ 2007. First it pumped. Then it dumped, after Coincheck lost half a billion NEM in the biggest hack of all time. Then it pumped again after Coincheck began reimbursing victims of the hack. And now it’s dumped again and is sitting at $0.22, down 89% from its peak of $2.09.

Cardano: Like other entrants on this list, cardano isn’t a total shitcoin. It simply got pumped too fast, too soon amidst January’s ebullience and now it’s paying the price, down 89% in 85 days.

Verge: And then there’s verge, which was destined to dive deep the moment John McAfee began shilling it. The fact that the supposed privacy coin’s fundamentals are a mess and its developers can’t stop failing hasn’t helped either. Still, things are looking up. In just two weeks’ time, the verge team will announce the new partnership their community has stumped up $3 million for, whereupon a moon mission surely beckons. Surely.

Bytecoin: An 88% retracement isn’t justice enough for this bonafide scamcoin. And nothing of value was lost.

Digibyte: If there’s one thing digibyte can be relied on, it’s to disappoint. It’s down 88% in 82 days.

Ripple: If any coin encapsulates the altcoin mania that characterized the nascent days of 2018, it was ripple. It’s down 87% in 85 days, despite Ripple announcing a string of partnerships and pilot programs. Still, word on the street is Coinbase is going to list it any day now…

A Plea of Mitigation

The above coins are 2018’s worst performers in a close-run race that includes the likes of SALT, Gnosis, Civic, and Status. While these coins were clearly overbought and over-hyped, their decline owes a lot to bitcoin’s slippage. Some of these coins will recover when bitcoin starts to mend, while others will fade into oblivion, and not before time.

Do you think these altcoins have a chance of surpassing their all-time high again? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter, and Fox.

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.