At 2 a.m., I stared blankly at the 0.000042 balance in my wallet. This is the last trace left by the original 20,000 USD principal—an eye-catching number. If you've also experienced a similar crash, it's likely you stepped on two types of coins: one is zombie coins with no code updates, and the other is inflationary tokens that dump upon unlocking. Today, I’ll explain these pitfalls thoroughly; once you fall into them again, there's really no excuse to shift blame.

**Zombie Coins: They Are Actually the Exchange’s Test Papers**

To determine if a coin is a zombie coin, look at three points. First, the code repository hasn't had substantial updates in over a year; second, the community posts less than 10 messages per week, and the official Twitter only piggybacks on hot topics like AI and NFTs, with no real content; third, trading volume is at the bottom, and liquidity is ridiculously thin.

Last year, I held a project that was quite active in trading, but suddenly one day I received a 72-hour delisting notice from the exchange. The price instantly dropped to zero, and the order buttons turned gray—an experience more despairing than losing control of the steering wheel on a highway. Exchanges don’t support idle coins—once trading volume hits rock bottom, these "zombie" coins are among the first to be cleared. Forbes once listed over 20 zombie tokens with a market cap exceeding $1 billion, including former stars like XRP and EOS. Besides hype, they are basically useless.

**Inflationary Coins: When the Circulating Supply Doubles, Retail Investors Lose Everything**

The tactics behind inflationary coins are much more covert than zombie coins. The most common scenario is: unlocking volume easily exceeds three times the average daily trading volume; early VC entry costs less than 5% of the current price; once the unlocking cycle begins, retail investors’ replenishment speed can never keep up with the project’s money-printing pace.

I saw a star project that went from $20 down to $0.40, a 98% drop, while its circulating supply quadrupled. Every unlocking moment, the K-line would plummet off a cliff. These coins’ "low price" is never an opportunity; it’s a sugar-coated bomb. Looks cheap, but in reality, it’s a continuous signal to cut the leeks.

**Underlying Logic: Your Position Is Someone Else’s ATM**

Whether it’s zombie coins or inflationary tokens, at their core, they rely on information asymmetry to harvest investors. The former wears down investors’ patience over time, while the latter destroys your cost basis through unlocking schedules. The volatility in the crypto market can indeed create wealth, but this mechanism is also designed to make most retail investors the bagholders.

Rather than betting on a low-priced coin doubling, it’s better to focus on fundamentals like exchange liquidity, project code activity, and genuine community discussion. Stablecoins like USDT can survive long-term precisely because they are backed by ongoing value support and transparency—these are the real foundations worth participating in.