1.Bitconnect.

It is the undisputed leader of our top list. This coin is considered to be one of the biggest frauds in cryptocurrency history. The Bitconnect project was launched in January 2017 and quickly enough broke into the top ten assets by capitalization. At first at first, the reputable service CoinMarketCap estimated the asset's capitalization at $2 billion, making it one of the most liquid kinoin. Such a rapid influx of investors was due to the mesmerizing promises of the organizers. They offered depositors significant bonuses for making deposits in Bitcoins. It was only over time that thinking users suspected something amiss. There were two main reasons for the doubt: 1. The mechanism of bonus payments was not clearly explained. There was confusion about the interest rates and the exact amount of payments. 2. it remained a mystery where the project was getting its funds for such generous rewards. It was only at the end of 2017 that investors publicly accused the organizers of running an investment scam based on classic "Ponzi scheme." The essence of this scheme is very simple: dividends to the first investors are paid out of the funds from the funds contributed by subsequent investors. Doesn't it remind you of anything? Yes, Bitconnect had signs of a classic pyramid scheme. In fact, throughout the second half of 2017, depositors demanded explanations from the founders: where does the money for interest payments interest. But not only were there no answers, but the identities of the organizers remained the identities of the organizers remained classified the entire time. Only at the beginning of 2018 did the Bitconnect pyramid start to collapse. Regulators in the U.S. states of Texas and North Carolina forced executives to stop the lending program and shut down the exchange on which Bitconnect was trading. As a consequence, the token in question found itself no one wanted the token and it quickly depreciated in value. Class action lawsuits were filed by users and the U.S. authorities investigated of the site's activities.

On July 3, 2018, the project was officially declared a SCAM. It was added to its list by the above-mentioned resource Deadcoins. Today the official website of the platform bitconnectx.co does not work, and the investigation continues. Although the chances of getting the money back of defrauded depositors is extremely low.

2. Universa

The situation with this project is a prime example of how internal disagreements can ruin a very promising startup. 

a very promising startup. Everything started out very well. In December 2017, the Russian organizers held a token sale

 In December 2017, Russian organizers held a token sale that raised a solid $28 million. The Universa project had all the prerequisites 

to gain a foothold on the market:

1. A promising startup idea - the plan was to create a blockchain platform for business applications based on a fast 

The blockchain is based on a fast protocol of the same name, with a throughput of 22,000 transactions per second.

2. known partners. One of them was the Russian Alfa Bank, which needs no introduction. But even more credible

 British audit and consulting company Ernst and Young was one of the partners. This company was

 the company was a guarantor of the fact that the organizers intend to keep a fair "game" and truly develop their brainchild.

3. John McAfee, the founder of the famous MGT Capital Investments, was on the startup's advisory board. He even played

 his role in promoting the project, since he shared his participation in its development on social networks.

The platform and the token of the same name were an immediate relative success. Universa was quickly added to the listing 

HitBTC cryptocurrency exchange, which further strengthened the position of the coin on the market. Later, it was included in the list of traded assets by

 Livecoin. But when the initial excitement subsided, some unpleasant facts surfaced.

It turned out that there were serious disagreements between the leaders of the project regarding its further development. 

Over time, this spilled over into counter-accusations and even resulted in criminal cases alleging that one or another person had harmed the project's reputation. 

individuals had damaged the company's reputation. While management was busy resolving internal disputes, there was an 

churn. Capitalization was extremely low, and daily trading volume on all of the exchanges combined was barely $42,000.

 The future of the startup remained unclear, and, naturally, many holders and exchanges did not take the risk. In particular, the exchange HitBTC

 very quickly excluded the coin from trading, which had a negative impact on its rate and attractiveness for new investors.

Strange as it may seem, the Universa project has not faded into history. It exists to this day. According to the service CoinMarketCap its 

rate  is 0.002 USD. Market capitalization is at 4.9 million dollars. 

 The question arises: why did I include the coin in this TOP, because it still exists and works?

The fact is that this is one of those cases when "the patient is more dead than alive". The coin has extremely low liquidity,

 which makes it vulnerable to financial fraud. Universa is not traded on popular trading platforms 

platforms, and the number of holders is quite low. Of course, the executives are trying to introduce some innovations and 

try to keep the project afloat. But its "golden time" the considered coin lost and it is unlikely that in the future 

in the future.

3. Emercoin

Closes our TOP with a real cryptocurrency old-timer, who never managed to prove himself. The coin appeared back in 2013,

 and in 2014, it was already traded on popular exchanges. At that time, the market was not yet overcrowded with digital assets, and 

Emercoin had a chance to take a shot in the long run. But the problem was that the coin didn't offer users anything

 new and special. In fact, it was just a decentralized payment system without any chips. 

In 2014, there was already Litecoin, which had many more attractive options (e.g., faster transactions)

. Even the cryptocurrency boom of '17 didn't help Emercoin. In its long history, it has never made the top list of the most

 popular coins.

At the time of writing the video the price of cryptocurrency is 0.05 USD. The capitalization is just over 5 million dollars, 

which is ridiculous for 2022. Just over 44 million coins have been mined so far, though a billion is planned. Emercoin

 is traded on some relatively popular exchanges (Livecoin, HitBTC), but it does not cause much excitement among traders.

 Despite this deplorable situation, the developers still believe in their project. In particular, they want to create a unique platform based on 

Emercoin network, a unique platform for the protection of sites and copyrights. However, so far all these intentions remain at the level of 

rumors and announcements.