17 Jan, 2018 10:58

Crypto-market meltdown: Here are 3 digital currencies that survived the carnage

Only three out of the top 50 cryptocurrencies were growing on Wednesday. With bitcoin, ethereum and ripple collapsing, here’s a list of the day’s survivors.

#21: Tether

This is one of the most criticized cryptocurrencies on the market. Pegged to the dollar, its tokens are fully backed by fiat currency assets that the company holds in its reserve account. Trading at $1,03, this digital currency avoided the fall, and was up almost 2 percent. However, when a cryptocurrency is fully dependent on the US dollar, it is centralized. And digital money is liked because it’s deregulated. Also, last year there were reports that $31 million in tether was stolen.

#23: Siacoin

This cryptocurrency grew over 12 percent to $0,046048. Siacoin is a cloud data storage service similar to something like Google Drive. It differs in that the storage itself is decentralized. However, the cryptocurrency’s creators and owners are known – they are IT company Nebulous Inc. So, the currency itself is centralized and hierarchical, which isn’t widely liked by those who favor bitcoin for its de-regulation.

#43: SmartCash

SmartCash was a spin-off from the zcoin project and is the only digital currency on this list without a centralized status. Its growth reached almost 30 percent on Wednesday, but was soon curbed to 12 percent. However, its dynamics chart was reminiscent of a typical “pump-and-dump strategy.” Jumping from $0.35 to $2.66 (760 percent growth in a matter of two days), it soon plunged to below a dollar, but is being pumped again.