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XRP, Cardano and Ripple’s Algo labeled as “Zombie” tokens: bad omen for their future? ⋆ ZyCrypto
Forbes, a respected business news site known for its in-depth analysis of financial markets, he scored several flagship cryptocurrencies, including XRP and Cardano’s ADA, as “zombie blockchains.” The term refers to blockchain projects that boast high market valuations despite having little real-world utility or low user adoption.
Top-tier cryptocurrencies come under fire from Forbes
Among the various crypto assets heavily criticized by Forbes is XRP, the cryptocurrency of Wavy ecosystem. Initially designed to compete with the international banking system SWIFT, XRP has effectively failed to meet its ambitious aspirations.
Despite its market value of around $36 billion, Forbes claims that XRP is “largely useless” as it serves no purpose other than market speculation. At the time of publication, XRP was worth $0.5159 and over the past seven days its price had fallen by 1.1%.
“Not only is SWIFT still going strong, but there are now better ways to send payments internationally via blockchain, particularly stablecoins like tether, which is pegged to the US dollar and has $100 billion in circulation,” the analysts added by Forbes.
Hard forks in the market such as Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin SV (BSV) and Ethereum Classic (ETC) have high market values of over $1 billion despite being used primarily as speculative investments rather than applications practices.
According to Forbes, these cryptocurrencies often emerge from disagreements within developer communities and continue to survive due to their historical importance or speculative trading.
The Challenges Faced by the “Ethereum Killers”
The Forbes report also casts a critical eye on so-called “Ethereum killers” such as Tezos (XTZ), Algorand (ALGO), and Cardano (ADA).
Despite significant technological advancements and high valuations, these tokens have yet to witness widespread adoption or user activity. Speculative interest for Cardan, in the present case, reportedly stems from the popularity of its founder, Charles Hoskinson, rather than real-world usefulness. In terms of price, ADA is not doing very well. The token remains a full 84.8% below its all-time high of $3.09 set in September 2021.
Forbes also highlighted the absence of strong governance structures and financial accountability mechanisms within these blockchain entities, which operate without regulatory oversight or obligations to shareholders. This makes it difficult to assess their financial health, as exemplified by Ethereum Classic’s continued trading activity despite being the victim of major security breaches.