Many people in the cryptocurrency world will gladly tell you about the bad reputation altcoins have, with the many scam coins, pump and dump coins, failed projects and whatnot. Even though things have gotten slightly less horrible over the past few months, EquinoxCoin just put another dent in the public perception of altcoins.
EquinoxCoin was originally announced on August 19th of this year, and distribution of the coins took place in two different stages. 1,3 Million EQX were sold during an ICO with escrow protection, 1,1 million EQX were given out for free, little over 8 million EQX were sold during the Bittrex ICO (without escrow protection for the buyer) and nearly 13.5 million EQX were destroyed because they didn’t sell during the ICO held on Bittrex.
And that is where things started to get a little bit fishy. Two different ICO’s for the same coin is something I have seen once or twice before, and it never bode well for that digital currency’s future. Especially not if one of them is for a rather low amount of coins, and the rest of the coins is “dumped” for sale later on.
Everything considered, EquinoxCoin had a marketcap of roughly 85 Bitcoin after both ICO’s were over, which is rather low considering there are just over 10 million coins in circulation. A lot of money could have been made if the EQX developers actually put some effort into the “promised” development of this altcoin.
While the EquinoxCoin developers showed off a lot of fancy images with “solid plans”for the future development of their coin, it just goes to show you can’t rely on eye candy alone when it comes to potentially investing hard earned money in altcoins. Especially not if they are offering an ICO at a relatively cheap price per coin (800 Satoshi), as there is good profit to be made in the first week(s) after an ICO in most cases.
I’m not saying there were no warning signs before the ICO even began though. A small example of this is the fact there are actually “two” official Bitcointalk accounts, called EQUINOXdev and EQUINOXdev2. Wait, what? Oh, and apparently there are the EQXdev and EQXDeveloper accounts as well. Last but not least, we also have EQUINOXrealdev now. This is getting better and better by the minute…
Don’t get me wrong, it is possible the actual developer’s BitcoinTalk account has been hacked, and people are now massively trying to discredit the coin. According to the official EquinoxCoin Twitter account that is anyway….
Regardless of how you look at the situation, a lot of people lost hard earned money again because of a “developer” promising his community the moon and the stars. However, there is an even more ironic part to this story, which just goes to show why “rating coins” has next to no impact on how things will play out after an ICO.
EquinoxCoin has received a 6/7 Trust Index rating on CoinsSource. While CoinsSource has proven to be a pretty reliable service in the past when it comes to rating coins, it looks like EquinoxCoin’s review could put a serious dent in their reputation. You can find out more details about EQX’s rating on CoinsSource here.
It’s time for people to wake up and not rely on other people’s ratings or opinions when it comes to possible investing in an altcoin. Do your own research, make up your own mind and if you don’t feel 100% convinced, don’t invest.
Bitcointalk thread : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=746191.0
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