Cryptocurrencies have demonstrated strong growth in the past few years. Some, like Bitcoin, Mantra, and BNB have become highly popular and rewarding to their investors. Mantra has had quadruple gains in the past 12 months.
Ghost chains refer to layer-1 and layer-2 blockchains that don’t have a thriving ecosystem of applications. These chains differ from other popular ones like Ethereum, Solana, and Avalanche that have an active ecosystem. So, this article explores some of the most overvalued ghost chain crypto coins to avoid in 2025.
Cardano (ADA)
Cardano is the most overvalued ghost chain crypto coin in the industry, with a market cap of over $27 billion. It has become the 9th biggest cryptocurrency in the world, making it bigger than popular tokens like Avalanche, Stellar, and Litecoin.
Cardano’s popularity surged in 2021 when it was seen as the best alternative to Ethereum, which was then a proof-of-work (PoW) network. At its peak, Cardano was valued at over $90 billion.
Today, Cardano is a ghost chain with no ecosystem. According to DeFi Llama, Cardano has a total value locked (TVL) of over $368 million and just $21 million in stablecoins. A closer look at its ecosystem shows that most of the biggest players are not popular.
Liqwid, the biggest lending network in Cardano has a TVL of just $81 million. In contrast, AAVE, the biggest lending player in DeFi has over $20 billion. Minswap, the biggest DeX netwok in Cardano, handles less than $10,000 in volume a day.
Near Protocol (NEAR)
Near Potocol is another large ghost chain in the crypto industry. The NEAR token has a market cap of over $4 billion, making it the 29th biggest player in the crypto industry.
Near Protocol is a layer-1 network that aims to be a better alternative to Ethereum and Cardano. It was one of the first chains to incorporate the concept of sharding, which slashed blocks into shards to supercharge its throughput.
Near Protocol is a ghost chain because of its relatively small ecosystem. It has just 30 dApps in the decentralized finance industry. Burrow, a lending protocol, is the biggest dApp in the Near Protocol ecosystem with a TVL of $125 million. It is followed by Ref Finance, a DEX network that handles little volume a day.
Near Protocol has established itself as a top crypto coin in the artificial intelligence industry, but there are no major notable dApps so far.
Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR)
Hedera Hashgraph is another overvalued ghost chain coin in the crypto industry. HBAR token has gained a market cap of over $9 billion. This growth was mostly because of its huge partnerships with top companies like IBM, Google, and Servicenow. HBAR token has also surged as odds of a spot Hedera ETF rose.
Hedera Hashgraph has a relatively small ecosystem to justify the $9 billion market cap. It only has a total value locked of just $114 million, down from $214 million earlier this month. The biggest players in the ecosystem are Stader, SaucerSwap, and Bonzo Finance.
Other popular ghost chain crypto coins to avoid
There are many other popular ghost chain crypto coins to avoid this year. The most notable of them are Algorand, Stacks, Celo, Injective, Internet Computer, and XDC Network.
To be clear: at times, these ghost chain crypto coins may surge in the long term. That’s because it is always difficult to value a cryptocurrency. Besides, mene coins, which have no utility have a combined market cap of over $73 billion, with the biggest ones being the likes of Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and Pepe.
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