I remember a few years ago there was a project like this.
Where you had to own the coins to be able to mine the coin. Coin profitability was actually very high. Because many miners had to purchase the coins to be able to mine.
Then…. Exit scammed.
Forgot the name of this coin? Maybe someone remembers?
Bit Free Cash, I remember watching it blow up.
Never heard of that one, but it seems somewhat similar to what happened with Ravencoin once ETH went PoS. You say a lot of people buying in to get ahead of the blow up in price when everyone started mining them and thus needed higher profitability. Then, it crashed leaving all the people who bought in thinking the price would jump up to maintain profitability as bagholders. A story as old as time... Buy the rumor, sell the news. Unfortunately, for many of these "new" coins, they don't have the liquidity available to survive the sell the news phase, so it turns into a rug pull.