The study also questioned whether FTX or Alameda had any role in coordinating Twitter bot activity for its own gain.
Crypto-spouting Twitter bots could be playing a much larger role in artificially inflating the price of altcoins than previously understood, a new study has suggested.
Using a sample of various FTX-listed cryptocurrencies in a published Aug. 2
, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) said it analyzed over 3 million tweets posted from Jan. 1, 2019, to Jan. 27, 2023, involving 18 altcoins.
The study found that Twitter bot activity played a crucial role in amplifying the value of these cryptocurrencies, including The Sandbox
GALA
$0.02, Gods Unchained (GODS) and LooksRare (LOOKS), with half of the coins showing signs of price influence as a result of tweet bot activity.
It also found that these inauthentic tweets would increase after FTX posted
about the token on social media, which it said raises questions about whether
FTX or Alameda Research could have played a role in coordinating the bot activity.
إقرأ أيضا:Making crypto lending mainstream: How this platform breaks DeFi barriers“In fact, for half of the FTX listed coins in the sample, inauthentic tweet
volume showed signs of forecasting subsequent price.
This suggests that inauthentic networks successfully and deliberately deployed to influence changes in FTX coin prices,” it said, adding:
“It begs the question, did FTX or Alameda engage in coordinated inauthentic activity on social media to artificially inflate market values?”
The study also looked into the impact of bot activity and crypto-adjacent tweets on two recent memecoins, suggesting the prices of Pepe
and have been influenced by both these factors.
NCRI detected a surge of newly created bot accounts before the launch of PEPE — which all went on to tweet about one of the two coins.
Pepe Coin and PSYOP leveraged memes and were also boosted by two of Musk’s tweets that seemingly gave a to each of the tokens, the study said.
Musk’s May 13 tweet of a Pepe meme caused the token’s price to jump over 50% within 24 hours.
إقرأ أيضا:Hester Pierce attacks SEC warnings about cryptography for accounting firmsAlongside Musk’s tweets, account creation surges took place a day
prior to Pepe’s April 17 launch, which suggested an orchestrated effort to use bots to amplify the token’s popularity.
The study’s researchers said this phenomenon could also affect stocks
and other securities. They pointed to the in 2022 surrounding so-called “meme stocks” such as GameStop and AMC.
