Cryptocurrencies that became the best way to lose investments

The period from late 2017 to early 2018 was a "golden era" for many cryptocurrencies and ICO projects. The prices of many digital assets skyrocketed, and investors tried to get a grip on any new token that was sold through ICOs. But the "cryptocurrency fever time" has passed and investors have suddenly realized that they invested their money in useless assets

Most interestingly, they included not only the initially meaningless tokens but also the once-popular cryptocurrencies that were revered by avid crypto-enthusiasts. However, something went wrong, and these coins gradually faded into oblivion, taking with them the money of naive investors who realized they were fooled.

Right now we see how one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies is losing its position — Ripple (XRP). The drop in the price of XRP due to litigation has led to a radical fall in the capitalization of the altcoin. We can't and won't predict XRP's future but right now we see how a great altcoin becomes less and less great.

Another great way to lose your investments is insecure cryptocurrency wallets. There are a lot of examples when people lose their investments due to the poor security of their wallets. Right now the trend is non-custodial cryptocurrency wallets (like Sapien Wallet, Trust Wallet etc.) that provide full control over the funds to users. Nevertheless, this article is about the top cryptocurrencies of the golden blockchain age that everyone has forgotten about and that led to a great loss of investments.

1. Nano (NANO) - down by 90.3% from ATH

Cryptocurrency Nano was the best way to lose more than 90% of your investment. Investors who bought Nano in late 2017 will never forget it because the price of the coin was steadily getting lower. Just imagine your $1,000 investment slowly but steadily turning into $5.8 — a cryptocurrency investor's worst nightmare. In March 2017 its price was $0.006.

Those who bought this coin on the price peak and have not sold in the next 3 months have lost almost all investments. Now the coin's price is $3.64 - for a coin with only 133 million in issue, that's a nano rate. In January 2018, its rate reached $37.62, and the coin itself ranked 20th by capitalization — higher than Zcash (ZEC), Binance Coin (BNB), and Tether (USDT).

2. Lisk (LSK) - down by 96.78% from ATH

At the end of 2017, the cryptocurrency Lisk had almost every top crypto-holder. The LSK price peaked in January 2018 when it rose to $39.31. But then its rate began to plummet, and now Lisk is trading at $1.28 (12.01.2021) — down nearly 97% from ATH. The post-2017 low was recorded in December 2019, when the price of the cryptocurrency LSK fell to nearly $0.5.

No, the developers have not abandoned the project and continue to engage with it, despite the popularity that has eluded them. And not just popularity: Lisk cryptocurrency was almost at the top of fame in 2018 and was one of the twenty largest cryptocurrencies by capitalization, competing with such mastodons as Monero (XMR), TRON (TRX), NEM (XEM), Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Tether (USDT). However, the creators of the project have not released any significant updates for the last 2 years, unlike Ethereum (Eth 2.0) and Cardano (Shelley).

3. Ardor (ARDR) - down by 96.82% from ATH

Ardor (ARDR) is a public blockchain platform with a Blockchain-as-a-Service network that aims to easily exchange cryptocurrency between companies. The price of ARDR cryptocurrency, the fame, as well as the market capitalization directly was depending on the implementation of the tasks set out in the roadmap as well as the team's efforts to develop their project. And here's the really strange thing: Ardor`s team was steadily going along their roadmap but it has not stopped the price of ARDR from falling.

Most investors that bought ARDR cryptocurrency in January 2018 have lost more than 90% of investments. In three years, the ARDR price has fallen almost by 97% from $2.55 to $0.07 (12.01.2021), and nothing can help the price to grow.

4. Steem (STEEM) - down by 97.94% from ATH

Over 90% of cryptocurrencies created in 2017 did not bring any benefit to the cryptocurrency community and, at best, just copy their popular counterparts. But this is not about Steem cryptocurrency. An original idea coupled with a strong team of developers... it seemed, what could go wrong?

The developers of Steem came up with a platform with their cryptocurrency to reward popular authors: for every like to an article, copywriters were rewarded with Steem tokens. This is a cryptocurrency analog of Medium. Popular authors could receive up to $500, or even up to $1000 in STEEM tokens just for one article.

And here's the really strange thing: Steem technology outperforms many well-known blockchains: there are no transaction fees, and Steem network throughput is more than 2 times higher compared to Ethereum.

However, apart from the platform, the tokens have not found any application, so they have not gained popularity among cryptocurrency investors. In three years, the STEEM price has fallen almost by 98% from $8.57 to $0.17 (12.01.2021), and even amid the new DeFi boom in 2020, it only came to $0.24.

5. Populous (PPT) - down by 98.97% from ATH

What could be worse than an almost 98% drop? Almost a 99% drop. Such an incredible result was shown by PPT cryptocurrency, which was actively traded. But you probably know nothing about it. For a second, Populous was traded on the Binance exchange and was a sought-after cryptocurrency with a capitalization of over $2 billion. Even one of today's top cryptocurrencies, Tezos (XTZ), has a smaller capitalization. PPT price reached $76.49 in January 2018 and then greatly dropped.

Due to the narrow focus of the project, the fame of Populous cryptocurrency gradually came to naught. The idea of the platform was to finance invoices. The goal of the project was to speed up the payment cycles faced by business customers. Although the project is still running, the information has not been updated since 2019. Perhaps the developers abandoned it and now Populous token is gathering dust along with the rest of the shitcoins. Nevertheless, now its price is $0.79 (12.01.2021).

Final thoughts

Cryptocurrency projects are fickle, and cryptocurrencies that were at the peak of popularity during the ICO fever have metaphorically reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the cryptocurrency market. Only Bitcoin and a few other top altcoins such as Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC) remain steady leaders in the cryptocurrency market.

There are also some cryptocurrencies that have lost a lot in price, but have good potential to reach that price again. For example, DASH cryptocurrency. At the peak of its popularity, it was one of the top three most popular anonymous cryptocurrencies. Its peculiarity is that when DASH is sent, transactions are mixed and formed in a single group, then sent chaotically to recipients. Incidentally, the Dash coin was released back in 2014 and was one of the first cryptocurrencies running on the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm, which became popular among cryptocurrency investors in 2019 and is still in demand today. Most experienced investors still are looking at Dash as at cryptocurrency that can rapidly grow.