What would you have made if you held McAfee’s ‘Coin of the Day’ to date?

In December of 2017, John McAfee – the name behind the antivirus software – kicked off a series of ‘Coin of the Day’ profiles – highlighting several cryptocurrencies thought to be unappreciated or undervalued.

While McAfee shifted his formula to cover a ‘Coin of the Week’ midway through, traders continued to jump on his highlights – using the opportunity to ride a profit wave through a subsequent pump and dump.

While McAfee’s ‘Coin’ profiles are usually thought to be little more than that, an interesting question remains – how much money could you have made (or lost) if you’d held McAfee’s picks to date?

Here, we’ll take the first ten Coin of the Day – and later Coin of the Week profiles – and explore not only what your return on investment might have been, but further whether any of these cryptocurrencies rebounded from the ‘McAfee effect’.

Electroneum (ETN)

ELECTRONEUM – The first of my daily coin reports: pic.twitter.com/sKf9WNirot

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 21, 2017

Electronuem – a cryptocurrency perhaps best known for its implementation of simulated mobile mining – woke up on December 21st with a value of $0.07 USD. Following McAfee’s tweet, the cryptocurrency rallied to a high of $0.12 USD.

Thereafter, Electronuem soared to $0.19 USD on January 7th, before collapsing and limping home to $0.02 USD at the time of publication.

The bottom line: If you had invested $1,000 USD in Electroneum on December 21st of 2017, you’d have made a loss of $714.29 USD, with a -71% return on investment.

BURST (BURST)

Coin of the day: BURST — First truly Green coin and most overlooked coin. Uses 400 times less power than Bitcoin Super secure and private. Includes smart contracts, encrypted messaging, decentralized wallet, libertine blockchain. Most undervalued coin. https://t.co/vOJOtNYLXp

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 22, 2017

Perhaps the first occasion where the McAfee effect came into play, Burst began trading at $0.04 USD on December 22, and post-tweet rallied to $0.05 USD. The cryptocurrency subsequently climbed to $0.08 USD the following day, reached a high of $0.11 on January 7th, and then gradually collapsed to $0.02 by press time.

The bottom line: If you had invested $1,000 USD in Burst on December 22nd of 2017, you’d have made a loss of $500 USD, with a -50% return on investment.

Digibyte (DGB)

Coin of the day: Digibyte (DGB). Using a Blockchain which is 40 times faster than Bitcoin and having one of the most decentralized mining systems in the world – based on 5 different synergistic algorithms. DGB adherents call the coin “The Sleeping Giant”.https://t.co/7MiWJ2tFfe

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 23, 2017

DigiByte began trading at $0.04 USD on December 23rd, and then traveled upwards to $0.07 USD. Digbyte reached a high of $0.01 USD on the 6th of January, and then sank to $0.03 USD.

The bottom line: If you had invested $1,000 USD in Digibyte on December 23rd of 2017, you’d have made a loss of $750 USD, with a -25% return on investment.

Reddcoin (RDD)

Coin of the day: Reddcoin (RDD) – a sleeper – most widely used social network coin in the world – flying under the radar since 2014. Working with every Social Media platform, it is the only currency that many children under the age of 10 have ever known.  https://t.co/ZN3jehwXp7

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 24, 2017

Touted by McAfee as the “only currency that many children under the age of 10 have ever known“, Reddcoin kicked off December 24th at just $0.01 USD, and then skyrocketed to $0.013. Shortly thereafter, Reddcoin rose to $0.02 USD on Christmas Day, and then saw a high of $0.029 USD on January 7th.

Reddcoin subsequently slumped to sub $0.01 USD levels, and at press time trades at $0.06 USD.

The bottom line: If you had invested $1,000 USD in Reddcoin on December 24th of 2017, you’d have made a loss of $400 USD, with a -40% return on investment.

Humaniq (HMQ)

Coin of the day: Humaniq (HMQ). In the spirit of Christmas, there is no better coin. Their mission is true to the very purpose of crypto – to endow the disenfranchised. HMQ, an overlooked gem, is, in my opinion, the most undervalued coin in existence. https://t.co/1z3mGUk274

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 25, 2017

McAfee’s Christmas pick, Humaniq began trading at $0.4 USD, and then quickly rallied to a high of $0.6 USD on the same day.

Humaniq has struggled to reach similar levels since, and at press time trades at just $0.1 USD.

The bottom line: If you had invested $1,000 USD in Humaniq on December 25th of 2017, you’d have made a loss of $833 USD, with a -83% return on investment.

Tron (TRX)

Coin Of The Day: pic.twitter.com/WSTXaha1Nk

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 26, 2017

Tron has enjoyed more press than most other cryptocurrencies McAfee has elected to espouse.

McAfee’s tweet had little impact on the cryptocurrency in hindsight – Tron began trading at $0.03 USD on December 26th,  and closed the day at $0.036.

Tron’s high point touched $0.027 USD on January 5th, and at press time trades at $0.05 USD.

The bottom line: If you had invested $1,000 USD in Tron on December 26th of 2017, you’d have made a profit of $666.67 USD, with a 67% return on investment.

Factom (FCT)

Coin of the week; pic.twitter.com/ZWISkUX6Ok

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) January 1, 2018

The first of McAfee’s ‘Coin of the Week’ picks, Factom kicked off the new year at $58.31 USD, and following McAfee’s tweet rose to $69.27 USD.

Factom next touched a high point of $73.76 USD on January 7th, and at press time trades at just $16.35 USD

The bottom line: If you had invested $1,000 USD in Factom on January 1st of 2018, you’d have made a loss of $719.60 USD, with a -72% return on investment.

Dogecoin (DOGE)

Coin of the week: DOGE

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) January 8, 2018

The most famous quirky currency, Dogecoin began trading at $0.017 USD on January 8th, whereafter a selloff was triggered that brought values down to $0.015 USD.

Doge hasn’t reached a high point since then, and today trades at $0.003 USD.

The bottom line: If you had invested $1,000 USD in Doge on January 8th of 2018, you’d have made a loss of $823.53 USD, with a -82% return on investment.

Stellar Lumens (XLM)

Coin of the week: Lumen (XLM) – called Stellar by some – though Stellar is the name of the network that created the coins. One of the fastest and cheapest crypto transactions. Lumens facilitate the financing of Third World projects and is called by some “The next Bitcoin”.

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) January 15, 2018

Lumens began trading at $0.62 USD on January 15th, after which values fluctuated to $0.63 USD.

While the cryptocurrency regained its strength after a short selloff to return to $0.6 USD, the cryptocurrency hasn’t returned to similar levels since, and today trades at $0.3 USD.

The bottom line: If you had invested $1,000 USD in Stellar Lumens on January 15th of 2018, you’d have made a loss of $500 USD, with a -50% return on investment.

Syscoin (SYS)

Coin of the week: SYSCOIN (SYS). Blockchain Foundry, in partnership with Microsoft have provided a SYSCOIN wallet like no other. Creates a distributed and flexible on-line marketplace that enables co-operation alongside competition. Has encrypted messaging, aliases and more.

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) January 22, 2018

Opening at $0.65 USD on January 22nd, Syscoin rose to strength at $0.77 USD following McAfee’s tweet. Since then, the cryptocurrency came close to its past glory by touching $0.74 USD on February 21st, but today trades at $0.33 USD.

The bottom line: If you had invested $1,000 USD in Syscoin on January 1st of 2018, you’d have made a loss of $507.69 USD, with a -49% return on investment.

For clarity, John McAfee did not issue ‘Coin of the Day’ tweets as investment advice. Data was acquired from CoinMarketCap from the inception of McAfee’s tweet to date on June 7th. Special thanks to go to Theunis van Rensburg for his assistance.

EDIT: Revised Reddcoin’s return on investment. We regret the error.