The breakneck rally in various altcoins has drawn in an army of retail investors, who are hunting for the next bitcoin.
The creators of safemoon bill it as a decentralized finance token that is destined to rocket in price.
Edward Moya, senior market analyst at currency platform Oanda, said: “Many view it as a pump-and-dump coin.
He argued that bitcoin is gaining weight as a form of digital gold, which people can use to hedge against inflation, although Goldman Sachs has questioned this argument.
But Ong added: “To say that all 6,000 altcoins are useless is unfair.” He said he is broadly supportive of tokens that are part of the decentralized finance movement, which aims to use blockchain technology to create safe financial contracts without the need for central parties like banks.
However, even tokens or coins that have more obvious purposes are liable to fail.