Forbes mentions billion-dollar cryptocurrency "zombies": XRP, XTZ, ALGO, ADA

Forbes research team has released a list of cryptocurrency "zombies," which includes familiar names such as XRP, ADA, LTC, ALGO, XTZ, and more. Cryptocurrency analyst Ignas also shared some insights.

Forbes research published a list of 20 crypto billion-dollar zombies.

These are L1s with high valuation but "are unproven and have little utility other than for speculative crypto trading."

Notable mentions: $STX, $ICP, $FTM, $ADA, $EOS… pic.twitter.com/XDKOkrshfc

— Ignas | DeFi Research (@DefiIgnas) April 25, 2024

A Billion-Dollar Crypto Zombie List

Ignas excerpted a few interesting lists as follows:

Ripple XRP

Ripple Labs' token XRP has a market value of up to $36 billion, ranking sixth in market capitalization among cryptocurrencies, but it serves no purpose other than speculation.

Last year, Ripple earned only $583,000 in transaction fees from the XRP ledger, resulting in a Price-to-Sales Ratio of 61,689, compared to NVIDIA's 37 times, which has seen its stock price soar several times recently, showing a stark contrast.

Ripple's other competitors, such as traditional finance's SWIFT and Tether's USD stablecoin USDT, operate well. In comparison, although XRP has a daily trading volume of $2 billion, it is speculative and lacks practicality.

Ethereum Classic ETC

The market value of Ethereum Classic ETC is $4.6 billion, but the fees generated in 2023 were less than $41,000. Its uniqueness lies only in being the original Ethereum chain.

Tezos XTZ

Tezos raised $230 million in its initial token offering ICO in 2017, and its XTZ token currently has a market value of $1.2 billion. However, Tezos only earned $5,640 in fees in February 2024 and $177,653 for the entire year of 2023.

Tezos' treasury holds $700 million, but only 20% is XTZ, with the rest being bitcoin and various diversified investment assets.

Algorand ALGO

Algorand, with a market value of $2 billion, has a treasury of $500 million. It was once seen as an Ethereum killer because it can process 7,500 transactions per second, but in 2023, it only brought in $63,000 in blockchain transaction fees.

Cardano ADA

The report claims that Cardano's transactions are entirely based on the popularity of its founder, Charles Hoskinson. Charles Hoskinson is also one of the co-founders of Ethereum, but left later due to differences in ideas with Vitalik.

However, Cardano brought in $3 million in revenue last year, although the Cardano Foundation claims that the main construction phase has not yet been completed. This figure also surprised Ignas!

Liquidity Keeps Crypto Zombies Alive

Ignas quoted a VC as saying that he strongly agrees:

The reason these zombies survive is liquidity!