Flashback 2018: 10 cryptocurrencies that lost the most in 2018
If 2017 was the story of rise of cryptocurrencies, the year 2018 proved to be a forgetful one for the market. Cryptocurrencies tumbled like house of cards, losing hundreds of billions in their market-cap
Bitcoin| Loss: $162.4 billion | World’s first cryptocurrency lost more than the current market cap of whole cryptocurrency market ($131 billion) in 2018. The market-cap of bitcoin on January 1 was over $229 billion, which slumped to $66.7 billion on December 29 despite an increase in circulating supply. However, it still is the largest and most popular cryptocurrency.
2/10
XRP (Ripple)| Loss: $77.6 billion | XRP by Ripple was the second biggest loser in 2018 taking a hit of about $78 billion in its value. Its market cap tanked to about $15 billion on December 29 from $92 billion on January 1. The difference can be bigger if we consider its year high valuation of $131 billion.
3/10
Ethereum | Loss: $60 billion | ETH or ethereum started the year with a market cap over $74 billion. It touched a high of $135 billion in January. However, market-wide slump caused its value to reduce to slightly over $14 billion at the end of December.
4/10
Bitcoin Cash | Loss: $38 billion | A hard fork of bitcoin lost over 92 percent of its market cap in 2018. It started the year valued at $41 and is currently worth around $3 billion.
Cardano | Loss: $17.8 billion | Currently the 11th largest cryptocurrency suffered the fifth biggest loss among major cryptocurrencies over the year. The cryptocurrency was launched last year and soon zoomed to a valuation of $19 billion at the start of 2018. It further climbed to be worth $29 billion in late January. However, at the end of year, at $1 billion its valuation is a fraction of that at its prime.
6/10
Litecoin | Loss: $10.6 billion | One of the most promising cryptocurrency of last year saw its valuation spiral down to below $2 billion at the end of this year. The currency lost over $10 billion in valuation during the year.
7/10
IOTA | Loss: $10 billion | Starting the year at a promising note, valued at over $11 billion, at the end of the year it was just a fraction of its prime. Currently its valuation is below $1 billion.
8/10
NEM | Loss: $8.7 billion | The coin which was in focus during Coincheck hack worth $500 million—biggest till date in cryptocurrency market—lost its sheen during the year. It was valued at $9.3 billion on January 1 and is now worth mere $603 million.
Dash | Loss: $7.5 billion | The coin made a downward dash to lose over $7 billion of its valuation within 12 months. The coin was valued at $8.2 billion at the beginning of the year and tanked to a valuation of $685 million at the end of it.
10/10
Stellar | Loss: $11.3 billion | The cryptocurrency certainly did not have a stellar year as it lost about thrice of its current valuation in the last 12 months. The currency saw its year high valuation at $16 billion and the year low was at $1.8 billion.
