A report that is making waves: Forbes published a report in March with harsh allegations. Around 20 different billion-dollar blockchains are referred to there as so-called zombie chains. This week they published another list that made waves in the crypto space.
Most of the chains mentioned are familiar, but a few particularly stand out. Cardano, Ripple, Litecoin and Fantom. All of them, according to Forbes: zombie chains. Little development, but a lot of money, no progress, hardly any revenue or users. Their almost only function: speculative crypto trading.
The gigantic zombie chains are roughly divided into two categories. One group are hard forks of existing chains, for example Litecoin (LTC) or Bitcoin Cash (BCH). These are modified versions of existing chains, in this case Bitcoin. The other group consists of Layer1 competitors to Ethereum, including Cardano.
Forbes measures how big the revenue is, how many developers are working on the chain, how many users it has and how much value is stored there, for example in DeFi (Total Value Locked). A look at the allegations against the three most popular representatives: Ripple, Cardano and Litecoin. And some answers to them.
1. Ripple (XRP)
Ripple has existed since 2012 and is one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies in the world with a market capitalization of $28 billion. Hundreds of employees, one foundation, many partnerships, one goal: bringing international payment transactions onto the blockchain. According to Forbes, they failed.
“Ripple Labs is a crypto zombie” and the token behind it, XRP, “has no value other than speculation,” it says. Even almost ten years after launch, there are actually only pilot projects with banks in poorer countries, SWIFT is “still strong” and there are better ways to send international payments via the blockchain, for example Tether. The data: Only 137 active developers, only $538,000 in fee revenue, no TVL, clearly a zombie chain for Forbes. You can read our comprehensive analysis of Ripple here.
2. Litecoin (LTC)
If Bitcoin is digital gold, then Litecoin is digital silver. This is often the narrative behind the blockchain, which was created in 2011. Cheaper, faster, more suitable for everyday use, but still safe thanks to Proof of Work. This is Litecoin, something like the little brother of Bitcoin. According to Forbes: a pipe dream.
Litecoin is trading at $79 per coin with a market cap of nearly $6 billion. A heavyweight in the industry. The data: only 74 active developers and $389,000 in annual fee income, a total value locked of around $5.6 million. For comparison, Solana’s TVL is $3.6 billion.
3. Cardano (ADA)
Cardano was launched in 2017 and is one of the great hopes of Layer1 blockchains. A chain with social demands: They want to make the world fairer, more transparent and better. Cardano relies on scientific research and cooperates very closely with universities. Therefore, developments often take longer. The market capitalization is almost $16 billion. This puts Cardano in tenth place among the most valuable blockchains.
According to Forbes, its value lies almost entirely in the popularity of its inventor, Charles Hoskinson. He is the “main attraction” but not a “reliable narrator.” For example, he claims to have abandoned his PhD in mathematics at the University of Colorado on his own initiative. But she says he didn’t pass his final exam. The data: 490 active developers, a TVL of almost $400 million, revenue from fees of around $3 million. You can read our analysis of Cardano here.
Mixed reactions to the report
Defiant boss Laura Shin calls the report an “excellent story,” and others also praise Forbes for shedding light on the problem. But criticism didn’t take long to arrive. Poorly researched, pure clickbait, is what the other side says. Author Panos sees it as an “excellent piece of nonsense and fake news” and immediately describes the authors as “idiots.”
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson also chimes in with a joke: “Hey, we’re all crypto zombies, according to Forbes. “Probably because we have brains.”
Litecoin Foundation Communications Director Jay Milla pointed out Unchained the idea that Litecoin is a dead chain. He referred to data from Glassnode. There you can see that Litecoin’s network activity has exceeded that of Bitcoin several times over the past year.
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