CMT Digital analyst Matt Casto released a troubling report on crypto coins that peaked in January 2018
According to Messari data, only a small number of cryptocurrencies that reached all-time highs in 2018 are still trading well today. Most have lost significant value and remain far below their previous peaks. The data from the aggregator indicate that 83% of crypto coins that reached highs three years ago are currently trading an average of 90.71% below their peaks. That percentage represents 157 crypto assets that now sit well beneath their all-time highs.
Casto was the first to highlight these concerning figures. He shared a tweet earlier in the day outlining average returns for cryptocurrencies grouped by the year in which the assets reached their highest price.
“Holding assets that peaked three years ago turns out to be an opportunity cost for deployed capital. It’s no surprise that 83% of assets that hit a high in January 2018 are trading more than 90% below their ATH. The ATH/Cycle Low data come from the @MessariCrypto API,” he wrote.
Casto assembled a dataset of 410 crypto assets that reached record levels between 2017 and 2020. Of the four annual cohorts, the 2018 group performed the worst, losing the most value. The 2017 cohort follows, with roughly an 82% decline among the largest coins from that year. Assets that peaked in 2019 have fallen about 72%, while the most recent cohort from last year lost 53% on average.
Industry observers attribute much of the value erosion to a reallocation of capital toward more viable projects. Venture funding that once flowed into successful Layer-1 blockchains in 2017–2018 has shifted into the emerging — and increasingly profitable — decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.
However, not all legacy digital assets have been losers. While many underperformed compared with newer crypto entrants, a handful of older coins have stood out and posted dramatic rallies. Some of those older cryptocurrencies have experienced epic rebounds, causing their prices to surge.
Cardano, for example, has risen roughly 1,700% since its price hit a low following the market crash in March. Zilliqa and Decred have also posted substantial recoveries, increasing about 2,670% and 14,130% respectively since their cycle lows.