加密货币的数十亿美元僵尸入侵

《福布斯》编制了一份价值 200 亿美元的代币清单，这些代币交易量大，但实用性极低，将其称为“僵尸代币”。这些代币的总市值超过 1000 亿美元，尽管缺乏重要的应用，但似乎主要用于投机交易目的。其中许多项目持有数百万美元的资金，但在没有股东问责或监管监督的情况下运作。这些代币的流行凸显了投资者尽职调查的重要性以及行业监管的必要性，以在快速发展的加密货币市场中保护投资者。

The Rise of Crypto's Billion-Dollar Zombies

加密货币十亿美元僵尸的崛起

The cryptocurrency market, valued at nearly $2.5 trillion, encompasses over 14,000 active tokens. Do we truly require such a plethora of blockchain projects?

加密货币市场价值近 2.5 万亿美元，包含超过 14,000 种活跃代币。我们真的需要如此多的区块链项目吗？

Emphatically, the answer is no.

强调的是，答案是否定的。

The market does not necessitate a proliferation of projects replicating similar functions. This fragmentation of liquidity yields nothing but "worthless" tokens, whose sole purpose is trading.

市场不需要大量复制类似功能的项目。这种流动性的碎片化只会产生“毫无价值”的代币，其唯一目的是交易。

It is widely acknowledged that "99% of tokens in circulation will eventually vanish," leaving only projects with genuine utility and economic models.

人们普遍认为，“流通中的 99% 的代币最终都会消失”，只剩下具有真正实用性和经济模型的项目。

Identifying these "functionless" tokens can pose a challenge. Investors are frequently swayed by buzzwords and grandiose marketing promises that paint unrealistic visions for projects. As such, distinguishing between valuable tokens and those with dubious value can be arduous.

识别这些“无功能”的令牌可能会带来挑战。投资者经常受到流行语和宏大的营销承诺的影响，这些承诺为项目描绘了不切实际的愿景。因此，区分有价值的代币和价值可疑的代币可能很困难。

After extensive research and analysis, Forbes has compiled a list of 20 billion-dollar tokens that offer minimal utility. These tokens are deemed "zombie" tokens, "living" solely for the purpose of speculative trading.

经过广泛的研究和分析，《福布斯》编制了一份价值 200 亿美元、实用性最低的代币清单。这些代币被视为“僵尸”代币，“活着”只是为了投机交易。

Disclaimer: The following information is based on Forbes' assessment.

免责声明：以下信息基于福布斯的评估。

XRP

瑞波币

XRP tops the list with a market capitalization of $36 billion. It is also considered the longest-lived "zombie," having been established in 2012.

XRP 以 360 亿美元的市值位居榜首。它也被认为是最长寿的“僵尸”，成立于 2012 年。

When Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto, and David Schwartz founded Ripple Labs with the XRP token, their goal was to create a new global financial standard that would allow banks to transfer funds quickly and with minimal fees.

当 Jed McCaleb、Arthur Britto 和 David Schwartz 用 XRP 代币创立 Ripple Labs 时，他们的目标是创建一个新的全球金融标准，允许银行以最低的费用快速转移资金。

In the first decade, dozens of financial institutions, including Bank of America and Banco Santander, participated in testing Ripple's new network. To fund their ambitious project, the founders created 100 billion XRP tokens and sold them on the market, raising $1.4 billion.

在第一个十年里，包括美国银行和桑坦德银行在内的数十家金融机构参与了Ripple新网络的测试。为了资助他们雄心勃勃的项目，创始人创建了 1000 亿个 XRP 代币并在市场上出售，筹集了 14 亿美元。

At the height of the bull run in early 2018, XRP peaked at a market value of $132 billion, making co-founder and CEO Chris Larsen a billionaire with a net worth of $8 billion.

在 2018 年初牛市的高峰期，XRP 的市值达到 1320 亿美元的顶峰，使联合创始人兼首席执行官 Chris Larsen 成为净资产 80 亿美元的亿万富翁。

Despite this success, Ripple Labs has failed to compete with SWIFT, let alone surpass its rival. The international payment system SWIFT remains firmly in control, processing $5 trillion in interbank transfers daily.

尽管取得了如此成功，Ripple Labs 仍无法与 SWIFT 竞争，更不用说超越其竞争对手了。国际支付系统 SWIFT 仍然牢牢控制着，每天处理 5 万亿美元的银行间转账。

Not only has Ripple failed to match SWIFT, but its payment network has also faced competition from stablecoins such as Tether, which has a circulating supply of $100 billion.

Ripple不仅未能与SWIFT相媲美，其支付网络还面临着Tether等稳定币的竞争，Tether的流通量高达1000亿美元。

Meanwhile, according to data from Messari, Ripple's XRP ledger generated only $583,000 in transaction processing fees last year—a meager amount compared to the company's grandiose ambitions.

与此同时，根据 Messari 的数据，Ripple 的 XRP 分类账去年仅产生 583,000 美元的交易处理费——与该公司的宏伟目标相比，这个数字微不足道。

Furthermore, the XRP token serves no purpose beyond being traded by speculators in the secondary market. Yet XRP's market cap remains at $36 billion, making it the sixth-largest coin in the industry.

此外，XRP 代币除了供投机者在二级市场上交易外没有其他任何用途。然而，XRP 的市值仍保持在 360 亿美元，使其成为该行业第六大代币。

According to Forbes' billionaire rankings, Larsen is the seventh-wealthiest person in the cryptocurrency industry, with an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion.

根据福布斯亿万富翁排名，拉森是加密货币行业第七富豪，估计净资产为 32 亿美元。

Ripple currently holds $24 billion worth of XRP tokens in reserve, sufficient to sell for the next four years. The San Francisco-based company has 900 employees and continues to make headlines for its partnerships with various companies and countries.

Ripple 目前持有价值 240 亿美元的 XRP 代币储备，足以在未来四年内出售。这家总部位于旧金山的公司拥有 900 名员工，并因其与不同公司和国家的合作关系而不断成为头条新闻。

However, despite a decade of efforts, Ripple's progress has been incremental at best.

然而，尽管经过了十年的努力，Ripple 的进步充其量只是渐进的。

Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise Asset Management, commented:

Bitwise 资产管理公司首席信息官 Matt Hougan 评论道：

"Ripple is like these early-stage venture funds or companies that raised too much money and don't know what to do with it."

“Ripple 就像这些早期风险基金或公司一样，筹集了太多资金，但不知道如何使用它们。”

The "Ethereum Killer" Cohort

“以太坊杀手”群体

The largest group of zombie tokens is the "Ethereum Killers," a term popularized during the previous cycle for projects that aimed to dethrone Ethereum.

最大的僵尸代币群体是“以太坊杀手”，这个术语在上一个周期中流行，指的是旨在推翻以太坊的项目。

These projects primarily touted their alleged superiority over Vitalik Buterin's brainchild, arguing that Ethereum could only process a few dozen transactions per second and suffered from prohibitively high gas fees during periods of high demand.

这些项目主要宣扬其相对于 Vitalik Buterin 的创意的优越性，认为以太坊每秒只能处理几十笔交易，并且在需求旺盛期间遭受过高的汽油费。

However, these arguments have become stale. Ethereum in 2024 is a far cry from its nascent days in 2014. While it remains expensive and faces scalability issues, Ethereum's importance to the DeFi ecosystem and the industry at large is indisputable.

然而，这些论点已经过时了。 2024 年的以太坊与 2014 年的初期相比已经相去甚远。尽管它仍然昂贵且面临可扩展性问题，但以太坊对 DeFi 生态系统和整个行业的重要性是无可争议的。

So, what becomes of projects that aspired to surpass ETH but failed to keep pace with its advancements?

那么，那些渴望超越 ETH 但未能跟上其进步步伐的项目会怎么样呢？

Cardano (ADA)

卡尔达诺（ADA）

Cardano, once hailed as an "Ethereum Killer," was launched in 2017 when Charles Hoskinson split from ETH due to disagreements with Vitalik Buterin.

曾被誉为“以太坊杀手”的卡尔达诺于 2017 年推出，当时 Charles Hoskinson 因与 Vitalik Buterin 意见分歧而与 ETH 分道扬镳。

The Cardano blockchain has a staggering value of $23 billion with a TVL of $396 million. The blockchain earned $3 million in fees last year, although the Cardano Foundation itself admits that it is still in its "start-up phase."

Cardano 区块链的价值高达 230 亿美元，TVL 为 3.96 亿美元。该区块链去年赚取了 300 万美元的费用，尽管卡尔达诺基金会本身也承认它仍处于“启动阶段”。

The entire Cardano blockchain ecosystem seems to revolve around its eccentric founder, Hoskinson. He owns an 11,000-acre ranch in Wyoming, funds self-proclaimed "alien hunters," and recently opened an anti-aging, regenerative medicine center in the town of Gillette.

整个卡尔达诺区块链生态系统似乎都围绕着其古怪的创始人霍斯金森。他在怀俄明州拥有一座占地 11,000 英亩的牧场，资助自称的“外星人猎人”，最近还在吉列镇开设了一家抗衰老、再生医学中心。

However, Hoskinson's credibility has been questioned on several occasions. He claims to have dropped out of a math PhD program at the University of Colorado, Boulder, but the university states that Hoskinson was a graduate student who never completed his degree.

然而，霍斯金森的可信度多次受到质疑。他声称已从科罗拉多大学博尔德分校的数学博士课程退学，但该大学表示霍斯金森是一名研究生，从未完成学位。

Hoskinson has also made vague references over the years to working for Darpa, the Pentagon's prestigious research arm.

多年来，霍斯金森还含糊地提到为五角大楼享有盛誉的研究机构高级研究计划局（DARPA）工作。

Matt Hougan of Bitwise commented:

Bitwise 的 Matt Hougan 评论道：

"Is this a blockchain that pretends to be an architecture or is it just an experiment that will never go anywhere?"

“这是一个冒充架构的区块链，还是只是一个永远不会成功的实验？”

Tezos (XTZ)

特所思 (XTZ)

Tezos, founded in 2014, was one of the first blockchains to incorporate Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus. The project raised $230 million in an ICO in 2017 and currently has a market capitalization of $1.2 billion.

Tezos 成立于 2014 年，是最早采用权益证明 (PoS) 共识的区块链之一。该项目于 2017 年通过 ICO 筹集了 2.3 亿美元，目前市值为 12 亿美元。

The Tezos blockchain processes around 130,000 transactions per day, compared to Ethereum's 1.2 million, and has a TVL of just $66 million. Ethereum, with over 4,500 dApps, has a TVL of $48 billion.

Tezos 区块链每天处理约 13 万笔交易，而以太坊的交易量为 120 万笔，TVL 仅为 6600 万美元。以太坊拥有超过 4,500 个 dApp，TVL 为 480 亿美元。

While the goal of "surpassing Ethereum" in transaction throughput has proven elusive, what about gas fees?

虽然交易吞吐量“超越以太坊”的目标已被证明难以实现，但天然气费呢？

Tezos collected just $5,640 in transaction fees in February 2024 and $177,653 for the entire year of 2023.

Tezos 2024 年 2 月仅收取 5,640 美元的交易费用，2023 年全年收取 177,653 美元。

However, Tezos founder Arthur Breitman insists that this number is significantly lower than the actual amount. According to Breitman, 75% of network fees paid in XTZ are burned—and thus not counted in reported revenue figures.

然而，Tezos 创始人 Arthur Breitman 坚称这个数字明显低于实际金额。据 Breitman 称，XTZ 支付的网络费用中有 75% 被烧毁，因此没有计入报告的收入数据中。

The founder estimates that Tezos has $700 million in its treasury and claims that only 20% of that is in XTZ tokens.

创始人估计 Tezos 的金库中有 7 亿美元，并声称其中只有 20% 是 XTZ 代币。

"The Tezos treasury is very much in Bitcoin and then a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds."

“Tezos 的金库主要是比特币，然后是股票和债券的多元化投资组合。”

However, this information cannot be verified.

但该信息无法核实。

Development of the blockchain is overseen by the Swiss-based Tezos Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to "foster the Tezos protocol through grants and other means of capital deployment."

区块链的开发由总部位于瑞士的 Tezos 基金会负责监督，该基金会是一个非营利组织，其使命是“通过赠款和其他资本部署方式促进 Tezos 协议”。

In the first half of 2023, the Tezos Foundation awarded $18 million to 31 new projects, including a Philadelphia video game company building puzzles on the Tezos blockchain and a Singapore-based talent development company focused on digital art.

2023 年上半年，Tezos 基金会向 31 个新项目授予了 1800 万美元，其中包括一家在 Tezos 区块链上构建谜题的费城视频游戏公司和一家专注于数字艺术的新加坡人才开发公司。

Algorand (ALGO)

阿尔戈兰 (ALGO)

Algorand has a market capitalization of $2 billion and $500 million in its treasury. It was once touted as an "Ethereum Killer" due to its ability to process 7,500 transactions per second. However, the network generated only $63,000 in transaction fee revenue in 2023.

Algorand 的市值为 20 亿美元，其财务资金为 5 亿美元。由于其每秒处理 7,500 笔交易的能力，它曾被誉为“以太坊杀手”。然而，该网络 2023 年仅产生 63,000 美元的交易费收入。

One analyst commented:

一位分析师评论道：

"Algorand's technology might be on par with other blockchains, but it doesn't have much activity because it lacks a strong community and talented developers outside of its founders."

“Algorand 的技术可能与其他区块链相当，但它没有太多活动，因为除了创始人之外，它缺乏强大的社区和才华横溢的开发人员。”

Algorand was founded by renowned Italian computer scientist and current MIT professor Silvio Micali.

Algorand 由意大利著名计算机科学家、现任麻省理工学院教授 Silvio Micali 创立。

Unsurprisingly, Algorand disputes these claims. Eric Wragge, head of business development at the Singapore-based Algorand Foundation, stated:

毫不奇怪，Algorand 对这些说法提出异议。新加坡 Algorand 基金会业务开发主管 Eric Wragge 表示：

"We're in the market development phase like Uber—have to pay for people to get in cars."

“我们正处于像 Uber 一样的市场开发阶段——必须为人们上车付费。”

The implication is that once this "burn phase" is over, Algorand will emerge as a formidable competitor.

这意味着，一旦这个“燃烧阶段”结束，Algorand 将成为一个强大的竞争对手。

The project has been undergoing a rapid turnover of its top executives, and the Algorand Foundation has a new CEO. It remains unclear when this "Uber phase" will end.

该项目的高管人员正在快速更替，Algorand 基金会有了新的首席执行官。目前尚不清楚这个“Uber 阶段”何时结束。

The Hard Fork Faction

硬分叉派系

Forbes analysts also include hard forks of Bitcoin and Ethereum on their list of billion-dollar zombies: Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Monero, Bitcoin SV, and Ethereum Classic.

福布斯分析师还将比特币和以太坊的硬分叉列入了他们的十亿美元僵尸名单中：比特币现金、莱特币、门罗币、比特币 SV 和以太坊经典。

These tokens are largely the result of disagreements among developers over how the Bitcoin or Ethereum networks should operate. Since they are open-source, anyone can use them. When developers fail to see eye to eye, they split off and create a new network using the same codebase as the original chain—a process known as a hard fork.

这些代币很大程度上是开发商之间对比特币或以太坊网络应如何运作存在分歧的结果。由于它们是开源的，任何人都可以使用它们。当开发人员意见不一致时，他们就会分裂并使用与原始链相同的代码库创建一个新网络，这一过程称为硬分叉。

The new chain shares the transaction history of the original chain. And similar to a stock split, holders of tokens at the time of the fork receive an equal number of tokens on the new chain.

新链共享原链的交易历史。与股票分割类似，分叉时的代币持有者会在新链上收到相同数量的代币。

Litecoin (LTC)

莱特币 (LTC)

Litecoin hard forked from Bitcoin in 2011 as a faster, cheaper version for everyday transactions.

莱特币于 2011 年从比特币中硬分叉出来，作为日常交易的更快、更便宜的版本。

LTC's block time is four times faster than BTC's, producing a new block every 2.5 minutes compared to BTC's 10-minute block time. Litecoin also uses Proof-of-Work (PoW)

LTC 的出块时间比 BTC 快四倍，每 2.5 分钟产生一个新区块，而 BTC 的出块时间为 10 分钟。莱特币还使用工作量证明（PoW）