Crypto Twitter is known for its impact in the manipulation game, but this week it seems to have outdone itself. A concentrated, some might say coordinated, pattern of coin shilling has been evident, with the result that those coins have, unsurprisingly, performed well above average as a result. What was most evident with smaller coins like OLT and BOLT last year has moved to Binance and mid-cap coins this time round, but the aims are the same – buy, promote, sell.
An OLT Story
Anyone who has spent any time on crypto Twitter last year can’t have missed the relentless shilling of two coins in particular – OLT and BOLT. Multiple accounts began, out of the blue, to relentlessly shill the tokens at two different points in the year, proclaiming the fundamental aspects of the projects as well as the technical once the coins got going. This resulted in huge run ups and collapses:
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it transpired that the owners of the accounts shilling BOLT and OLT had been accumulating their bags in the run up to the shilling marathon, exiting at the top and leaving their followers picking up the tab as the values dipped back under pre-pump levels.
Same Shit, Different Coins
Fast forward three months and we see similarly relentless shilling of Algorand (ALGO), the blockchain that recently began hosting USDT, as the next big thing. Many popular accounts have been talking about it and posting charts with huge potential growth incessantly:
Cleaner chart than earlier.
The recent daily candles on $ALGO are ridiculous, send it already. https://t.co/p7c6yP7cfV pic.twitter.com/VwAtxhES2Y
— Pierre ?️ (@pierre_crypt0) February 18, 2020
$algo is gonna send pic.twitter.com/BXiqI5RZOq
— The Crypto Dog? (@TheCryptoDog) February 19, 2020
01 – Algorand +20%
> Buys got hit overnight, woke up to +20% (refer to prior thread below)
> Entered through BTC-pairing this time
> Pullbacks into 3900-4000 are for buying imo
> Attached proof of larp bc muh hindsight trade while asleephttps://t.co/4NDdiMlMIa pic.twitter.com/4bYd4168CZ
— Loma (@LomahCrypto) February 20, 2020
The impact was something of a self-fulfilling prophecy as followers of these influencers bought up the token, causing the price to do exactly as these experts had ‘predicted’, resulting in it almost doubling in value since Bitcoin’s dip days ago.
Having made their money, these influencers have now cashed out and moved on. Their next target? Cosmos (ATOM):
I’ve seen a few charts of $ATOM on my feed today.
Shared my opinion on the chart for those interested and how I’m planning to trade this one.
Tldr: Looking to build a position. Not ready yet but promising, waiting for break of 200d EMA/4,700-4,900 sats. pic.twitter.com/swyHSfVyJN
— Pierre ?️ (@pierre_crypt0) February 20, 2020
— The Crypto Dog? (@TheCryptoDog) February 21, 2020
01 – Cosmos
> Looking for an entry over the next few days
> Either ~0.00040 – 0.00042 or a breakout above 0.00047
> Tezos moved. Algorand beginning to take off. Looking at Cosmos to follow
> H&S breakdown into D3 Support pic.twitter.com/8XaJ6LB7of
— Loma (@LomahCrypto) February 20, 2020
The result? ATOM has already climbed 15% in a day and a half while the rest of the market is stagnant. In a space full of behind-the-scenes chicanery (who can forget Crypto ‘I’ll throw 1-2 BTC at it’ Gat and his crew discussing the manipulation of a HavenProtocol in 2018), it is almost refreshing to see such blatant manipulation out in the open, but in an unregulated space it is inevitable, and it will continue.
It must be stated for the record that without a smoking gun it isn’t possible to ‘out’ individual traders, but the above posts, and many like them that appear without fail at the same time, clearly indicate a pattern that inexperienced traders and investors can easily fall for.
Anyone tempted to be swept along by the FOMO tide should remember that these pseudo pump and dumpers have a strict exit plan, and they are not duty-bound to be honest in their tweets – their exit points are almost guaranteed to be slightly under what their charts state in order to mitigate risk. Don’t forget, they’ve been accumulating at much lower levels, so their profits will already be high while yours are low.
Shining a light on such shady practices acts as a reminder that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, especially in crypto. It’s tempting for new entrants to buy into the hype, especially when it’s sold so convincingly, but eventually you will pay for your reliance on others.
It’s All Just a Happy Coincidence
No doubt these ‘traders’ will claim that the synchronicity in their tweets is coincidence, or that it was obvious from the charts what was going to happen, but if you buy this then we have a bridge to sell you.
Likewise, some followers will no doubt believe that there is nothing nefarious going on, that these traders are just really good at what they do and happen to all agree on the same coin, believing its fundamentals as well as its technicals. Good luck to you. We hope you don’t get burned.
Thankfully, not everyone is blind to what is going on:
They are after money. Don’t care if it’s Algo, BTC, XRP or some coin at the 6000th place.
Until utility kicks in, shilling will be all we have in this shithole.
— KlementK92 (@KlementKrisz92) February 21, 2020
I think, I see every couple of hours some guys shilling $algo. The times, they shill together one coin, feels like a campaign before an election. Mass social media marketing?
— coinflipper AT (@CoinflipperA) February 20, 2020
Next day everyone shilling atom …
Get your own clout maggots. https://t.co/8tBoXz3rzG
— Ad_Infinitum (@CryptoMessiah) February 21, 2020
if the FOMO grabs you and you have to have a piece of the action, whatever you do, please don’t buy in once the rocket has already taken off, and don’t hold out until publicly posted targets are reached.
Better still, do your own research and find your own gems rather than relying on ‘free’ ‘tips. Sometimes the free things can end up being the most costly.
