John McAfee has become well known for his bold predictions on cryptocurrencies and market trends. One thing I’ve learned is that nothing is impossible in the world of crypto, which means, eventually even McAfee will be right about one of his predictions. I’ll let you know when that happens.
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For now, let’s take a look at his forecasting track record.
There are many loud, influential voices talking about Verge (XVG). One of which is John McAfee, the eccentric founder of McAfee Antivirus who later–reportedly–went to live in the jungle like a modern day Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. A few months ago, McAfee said via his Twitter feed that Verge would reach $15 per coin in 2018. Recently, he has said the coin will tank.
Why the change of heart?
In December, he said Verge would hit $15 in 2018, and the internet lost its mind in response. He also added, “My XVG prediction #XVG #WraithProtocol if you think these Verge prices are high – you haven’t seen nothing yet.”
Then he backtracked, and claimed that his Twitter account was hacked. Hard to believe the same John McAfee who was coming out with a “Hack-Proof” phone had his phone hacked. He affirmed that he never said any such thing about Verge, and went on to say he thought the coin might collapse. He also deleted the Tweet predicting Verge would hit $15, which did, in fact, come from his official account.
Fast forward to present day, and Verge is at an uninspiring $0.03, according to CoinGecko.
That being said, Verge is undervalued in my opinion (keyword). Although it’s a fork of DogeCoin, it’s a great privacy coin, and it has much faster block times (about 30 seconds) than most of its competitors.
More recently, McAfee named DogeCoin (DOGE) as his “coin of the week” for the week of January 8. I was admittedly surprised at his choice, but Doge might be worth more than you think.
Created as a joke by its founder, Jackson Palmer, McAfee boasted that the lighthearted jokecoin was “[one of the] most widely accepted and loved cryptocurrencies in the world.”
While that may be true, for a coin that doesn’t take itself too seriously (their mascot is a confused-looking Shiba Inu), Doge also isn’t using blockchain technology to solve specific problems. That makes Doge a bit less competitive in a market where coins are often judged on the basis of their functions and their underlying technology.
Cryptocurrencies are only worth what someone is willing to pay for them. There could be coins developed for each and every hobby and industry in the world, and as long as there’s a loyal community there to buy and sell the coin, the coin will have value.
However, that doesn’t mean that it will be widely adopted or provide a solid return on investment. Which is why it should come as no surprise that two months later, Doge is at a not to be taken seriously $0.003. That’s 0 for 2, John.
And then there’s DigitalNote. People thought McAfee was completely insane when he predicted $1 Million BTC by 2020. So, to show even a former fugitive can be reasonable, John balanced out the crazy by predicting the rise of another coin that matched his incredibly low criteria: DigitalNote (XDN).
McAfee said XDN had a lot of potential as a privacy coin, and he repeatedly predicted it to rise throughout December and well into 2018. It’s currently at an abysmal $0.01.
Regardless of the accuracy (or lack thereof) of his predictions, McAfee has created a wet dream scenario for pump-and-dumpers. However, pump-and-dumps can weaken faith in existing investors and convince them to pull out of the currency. This creates a situation where the currency no longer has HODL investors to prop up the price, and it can take months, or even years, to correct this problem.!