Where have all the new coin launches gone? I used to be able to come here and find new coins to spec mine, but I dont see many, if any new coin launches going on? What is happening?
Visit your exchange and search for new coins, that is the most reliable source for identifying new coins, most of the time the coins that get published here are through bounty offerings which in most cases are not sought after lately, but that notwithstanding you can also make use of the announcement board bounty section and also your exchanges you likely will not miss out if your employ all the ways I mentioned.
Op is talking about mining new coins. And when it's speculative mining, that often means that people are mining them before they are even listed.
Imho the reason they aren't popular anymore, is because L2 alternative is more profitable for developers then PoW, as Developer having "premine" is pretty much standard.
With pow, you need lots of people mining to keep the chain safe. With tokens, someone else is already securing the chain. Also i am pretty sure that PoS has taken over PoW in the L1 coins.