This is the weekly “altcoin corner” article where we explore another project in the greater cryptocurrency ecosystem

The new cryptocurrency ratings issued by Weiss were big news this week for crypto traders, and we saw some coins spike significantly with the release of their ratings. The ratings they released were not met by teams involved with rated currencies without controversy. There were a lot of blue chip cryptos that issued critical statements on Twitter and Reddit.

Dash, for its part, fared better than most, ranking a C+, putting it on par with Bitcoin and BitShares, and ahead of coins like Bitcoin Cash, Monero, Zcash and Ripple. However, plenty of these ratings raised eyebrows, with some completely minor, unremarkable, and even semi-abandoned projects getting high marks. The example of NXT calls into question the validity of the whole ratings system.

NXT’s unrealistic rating

NXT was one of the coins that received a “C” acceptable rating, close to Bitcoin’s controversial “C+” rating, but does it deserve its acceptable rating? NXT is a coin that has been around for a long time in crypto terms, and has had a solid reputation among traders, but Weiss’ analysts may not have done their due diligence when bestowing their rating.

Jelurida.com, the lead development team behind NXT, appears to have moved on to other projects, primarily Ardor and its ICO, IGNIS, which now sits on the Ardor blockchain as a “child chain”, providing the Ardor blockchain with the functionality NXT has had without the same overhead. Jelurida’s development team is also heavily involved with Komodo’s platform and its new Atomic Swap Barter DEX decentralized exchange.

A soon-to-be-dead blockchain?

So, what does this mean for NXT? If Jelurida’s statement to NXT asset holders issued last fall, ahead of the Ardor snapshot is to be believed, NXT may be a dead blockchian by spring of 2018. Jelurida urged NXT asset holders to put in requests to migrate their NXT assets to Komodo’s blochain as soon as possible as their team does not expect NXT’s network to have sufficient forging capacity after March of this year. This makes Weiss’ “C” rating of NXT very suspect, and does not inspire confidence in their agencies technical research for their rating system.

NXT may survive after Jelurida’s projection, but only if a major development team finds what remains of the NXT platform after the asset migration to Komodo useful. NXT prices plummeted after the Ardor snapshot and it is still possible that some development team may find the NXT blockchain an attractive option to migrate to if they are dependent on a blockchain like Ethereum, that is heavily trafficked, for their functionality, but this remains a risky bet at the very least. Weiss’ NXT ratings should be taken with a grain of salt if they can issue such a rating for a project whose main development team has moved away from.

Unrealistic ratings to be expected in a new and speculative space

Cryptocurrency is a nascent industry with primary use as a means of speculative trading, with very little actual use in commerce. Because of this, it’s easy to overlook real-world use and business partnerships in a field where these are rare occurrences. In the future, investment ratings systems will surely adjust as the cryptosphere matures, and coins like Dash will be recognized for their long-term potential as major players. Right now, however, it’s easy to see how ratings like those of Weiss get it wrong.