89% of Holders of Gary Gensler’s Praised Token in Loss, Just 8% See Profits

As the crypto market experiences a downturn, crypto investors feel the heat, particularly those holding Algorand (ALGO), Gary Gensler’s praised project. Data from the analytics platform IntoTheBlock shows that 89% of ALGO holders are at a loss. These investors are “out of the money,” meaning the overwhelming majority of ALGO investors hold the asset below the price they first bought them.

ALGO trades at $0.1818 at press time, with a 5% gain in the last 24 hours. At this market value, only 8% of Algorand holders are profitable. In parallel, 3% are at break even, neither bearish making profit or gains.

Source: IntoTheBlock

Remarkably, among the cryptocurrencies monitored by IntoTheBlock, ALGO stands out as having the highest percentage of holders in a loss position.

Furthermore, IntoTheBlock statistics indicated that at least 83% of these Algorand investors are long-term investors holding the asset for more than a year. Only 15% joined the ALGO market within the last year. Meanwhile, 2% of the holder spectrum accounts for those who bought ALGO within the last 30 days.

Silvio Micali, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor, founded Algorand in 2017. This blockchain project garnered praise from the now infamous U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman, Gary Gensler.

This was during Gensler’s tenure teaching at the MIT Sloan School of Management in 2018 and 2019. Specifically, during a 2019 presentation, Gensler remarked that Algorand is “a great technology that has a performance with which you could create Uber on top of it.”

This endorsement gained more significance after Gensler assumed the role of SEC Chair in 2021. However, when the SEC filed a lawsuit against the crypto trading platform Bittrex last April, it classified ALGO as a security.

Despite initial optimism and endorsements, Algorand has struggled to keep pace with its peers in recent years. Three months after Gensler’s 2019 presentation, ALGO surged to an all-time high of $3.56. However, selling at around $0.1818, the asset reflects a staggering 94% drop in value since then.