Remembering the Class of Altcoins That Went Up in Smoke

Tony Spilotro

During the crypto hype cycle and asset bubble that formed in late 2017, everyone jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon and scrambled to launch altcoins designed to power a specific industry or category.

To celebrate the current 420-day holiday taking place across the globe, we’re looking back at a small subset of altcoins that went completely up in smoke when the bubble eventually popped.

Remember The Unnecessary Altcoins Launched During Irrational Exuberance?

There’s an altcoin token out there for just about everything imaginable. There’s a TrumpCoin and a PutinCoin – even a Putin Classic. There was a Diet Bitcoin, launched by Pablo Escobar’s brother.

Everyone has heard of DogeCoin, and there’s even a token straight-up called Useless Ethereum Token, complete with full disclosure that the coins are “completely useless tokens.” The token sale sold out completely.

For a short duration during peak crypto hype bubble, more altcoins were created with more serious tones, aimed at powering a specific industry, such as dentistry with DentaCoin, or the pornography industry with SpankChain, WankCoin, or the Vice Industry Token.

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During the same timeframe, across North America, more and more US states and Canadian provinces began legalizing recreational marijuana, causing a massive surge in interest and growth in the sector.

Pot stocks caught fire, and projects were launched for crypto tokens that would eventually underpin these industries as the backbone. PotCoin, CannabisCoin, HempCoin, DopeCoin, and others were all created out of thin air and launched for investors to take a position in.

PotCoin was among the first cannabis-industry focused tokens to experience success. During the bubble, the crypto asset went on a roll from $0.001 per token to over $0.40 at the all-time high. Investors in the cannabis crypto were feeling just as high, for one reason or another.

420: From All-Time Highs, Cannabis Crypto Projects Go Up in Smoke

Since that high was set, the altcoin went completely up in smoke. And so did other marijuana-focused altcoins.

PotCoin, CananbisCoin, HempCoin, DopeCoin, Cannation, Paragon, BlazerCoin, and all of the other pot-related crypto coins, have all fallen over 90% or more from their all-time highs. Some have lost as much as 99.9% of their valuations, leaving investors burnt out.

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Markets are cyclical, and while it’s possible that these altcoins eventually make a comeback, time has shown that many industries don’t need a crypto token, and has since revealed that any projects designed to serve such purposes weren’t well thought through business proposals, and are completely unnecessary.

Most will never recover anywhere close to their all-time high prices, even though the marijuana industry is thriving and growing rapidly thanks to widespread legalization across the world, and an expanding acceptance as a recreational drug and medical treatment alternative.