The urgent need for a “mass extinction” of “junk coins” from the crypto market is not at all a new topic. Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin predicted that over 90% of the initial coin offering (ICO) era would fail. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in 2019 agreed 99% of all cryptocurrencies would vanish.

The sentiment remains unchanged. Arthur Hayes said in his keynote at Consensus Miami 2026 that “99% of altcoins could eventually go to zero,” citing a shift in fiat liquidity as the only real driver for the few that survive.

Ben Cowen, a market analyst and founder of Into the Cryptoverse, told CoinDesk the purge has been underway since 2021, but a more meaningful “junk-coin cleansing” is…