CoinMarketCap appears to reverse policy on Hex after class action threat [UPDATED]
Update 12:34 UTC, Jan 7: Just hours after this was published, CoinMarketCap appears to have once again forced Hex into rank 201. We’ll update this piece should the site provide us with more information.
Update 11:51 UTC, Jan 8: A CoinMarketCap spokesperson has since confirmed Hex’s appearance on the front page was due to a glitch, which also affected several other cryptocurrencies at the time.
Binance-owned CoinMarketCap now lists notorious crypto project Hex as the eighth-largest cryptocurrency, after a class action lawsuit was filed over the matter last September.
CoinMarketCap, the most popular crypto price portal, had previously relegated Hex to its third page without much explanation.
Seemingly, the site permanently assigned Hex to 201st, despite technically boasting a market cap as high as $85 billion at its peak in September.
At that point, Hex would’ve easily ranked in the top-five cryptocurrencies by market value, ahead of Ripple (XRP), Tether (USDT), and Cardano (ADA).
The crypto community at large has met Hex — and its flamboyant figurehead Richard Heart — with fervent skepticism.
Heart pitches Hex as a crypto-powered “certificate of deposit.” Investors stake tokens to earn rewards (paid in HEX) scaled to how long they’re locked away.
Scarcity (and thus demand) is implied to increase as more holders stake for longer.
Indeed, as Hex has practically no utility beyond staking it for more tokens, its value proposition relies almost entirely on recruiting new buyers into the market.
This has left many to draw comparisons between Hex and classic Ponzi and pyramid schemes.
Binance execs ghost Hex class action lawsuit
As Protos previously reported, one Hex investor considers CoinMarketCap’s stifling of HEX’s “true” ranking in its crypto leaderboard a conspiracy.
The token’s price had multiplied 3,000 times since the start of 2020, yet CoinMarketCap effectively banished it from its front page (although the site still reported prices and displayed charts elsewhere).
They filed a class action last September alleging market manipulation on behalf of CoinMarketCap parent Binance and its execs.
However, plaintiff Ryan Cox has so far been unable to locate Binance chief exec Changpeng Zhao and his colleagues to serve them with the suit. A judge denied his request to serve them via Twitter.
Protos previously contacted CoinMarketCap for its take on the matter. A spokesperson simply said: “Cryptoasset rank (the default view on the homepage of the site) is determined by market cap and factors highlighted in the methodology.”
CoinMarketCap’s methodology shows cryptocurrencies relegated to rank 201 and beyond had failed to fulfill certain requirements.
The most relevant appears to be Section C of its “listing criteria,” which weighs projects by their team, impact, practicality, uniqueness, and innovation, among other benchmarks.
Read more: [Hex crypto truther wants to sue Binance execs — but he can’t find them]
We then spoke to Hex leader Heart for his take on CoinMarketCap’s apparent about-turn, and whether he thought it had anything to do with the class action.
After shilling another one of his tokens, Heart said: “Nope they’re just bad at their jobs. It ranks eighth, but shows 201st when you click the page. They can’t even lie properly.”
Protos has contacted CoinMarketCap to learn more about what changed for Hex to now feature in its top eight, and we’ll update this piece should we hear back.
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Edit 11:49 UTC, Jan 8: Clarified the class action lawsuit was filed last September.