Although, I do not know much about altcoins, but I think bringing this up is really worth it. One thing I like about bitcoin is how it is distributed and how it is not centralized as many altcoins do but decentralized. There are coins that can be subjected to pump and dump, in fact, it is not new but stale how many altcoins in the past were controlled by scammers that pumped and dumped the altcoin. There are some altcoins that was not subjected to such pump and dump, or if subjected, the coin later was pumped. I for one, I do not trust on many altcoins as they are centralized.
While talking about centralized cryptocurrencies, what first comes to mind is ripple, the first time I hate holding ripple was when I realized you will need to have a ripple reserve of 20 xrp on noncustodial wallet which can never be used again but remain useless in the ripple so called ripple reserve, also is their shady (centralized) blockchain. Let us leave that aside and look more deeper into some coins and tokens that are also centralized in term of holdings. There are altcoins that only few addresses control 50% or more of the total supply in circulation.
This year, I read about ChainLink, how it is controlled by only few addresses.
More than 80% of LINK is controlled by 125 walletsNew research from Glassnode indicates the top 1% of Chainlink holders control nearly 81% of the token’s supply. According to crypto market data aggregator Glassnode, Chainlink’s (LINK) token distribution is at record levels of centralization — with more than 80% of LINK not held on exchanges currently residing in the top 1% of Chainlink wallets. Glassnode’s research found that 81% of LINK not held on crypto exchanges of smart contracts is currently stashed away in 125 wallets, with the number of tokens held by Chainlink’s whales steadily increasing over the past two years.
Also, in a new recent report, it was revealed that 70% of doge was controlled by 100% addresses.Calculating the exact distribution of a given cryptocurrency can be difficult because public blockchains tend to be either pseudonymous or anonymous. But data from several available sources shows that almost 70% of the entire Dogecoin supply is held in just over 100 addresses.
From more researches, it will be evident how many altcoins are centralized in a way over 50% of of their circulatory supply is controlled by only few addresses. I believe anything can happen in the future which can make such altcoins to be vulnerable to high downtrend volatility which can result to losses in a long term pump and dump fashion.
https://clankapp.com/dogecoin/richlist/https://insights.glassnode.com/the-week-on-chain-week-3-2021/