CMT Digital’s analyst Matt Casto has released a worrying report about crypto coins that peaked in January 2018
According to data from Messari, only a handful of cryptocurrencies that hit highs in 2018 are still trading favourably. The rest have lost value and plummeted heavily. The aggregator’s data shows that 83% of crypto coins that posted record highs three years ago are currently trading 90.71% below their peaks. This percentage represents 157 crypto assets that now sit so far below their highs.
Casto was first to notice this troubling data. He shared a tweet earlier today, highlighting the average return on investment of cryptocurrencies based on the year the digital assets notched their all-time highs.
“Holding assets that hit high marks +3 years ago is proving to be a massive lost opportunity cost for deploying capital. There’s a reason 83% of assets that hit a high price in January 2018 are trading +90% below their ATHs. ATH/Cycle Low data is from @MessariCrypto API,” he wrote.
Casto compiled a data set of 410 crypto assets that had hit their record high between 2017 and 2020. Of the four groups, 2018’s set was the worst, having lost the most value. 2017’s set follows with the top crypto coins that year having slumped by about 82%. 2019’s star crypto assets have crashed by 72%, whereas the leading crop from last year has lost 53%.
Industry experts believe the loss in value is due to the movement of funds to more viable projects. They argue that the investment capital that was being directed in the layer-one blockchains performing well between 2017 and 2018 is now injected into the budding, albeit profitable, DeFi sector.
Not all is negative about digital assets from past years, though. While they have generally posted poor performances compared to crypto assets from recent years, a few of them have managed to stand out. Some of the older cryptocurrencies have recorded epic rallies, and their prices have consequently skyrocketed.
Cardano, for instance, has recorded an upswing of about 1,700% since its price floored following the price crash of March last year. This is also the case with Zilliqa and Decred that have surged by 2,670% and 14,130%, respectively, since they bottomed out.