- Bots accounted for most of the tweets related to tokens listed on the FTX
- PEPE and PSYOP also followed similar patterns of using bots to influence their price trends.
ftx, Pepe [PEPE], and Psyop are seemingly unrelated projects at first glance. However, upon closer examination, it becomes clear that they all share a connection to Twitter and Twitter bots.
FTX listings and bots alternate
The collapse of ftx had a major impact on the entire crypto ecosystem, especially since it took place shortly after another major crypto project, Terra [LUNA]collapsed.
Both FTX and Luna are involved in ongoing legal battles. However, recent findings suggest that FTX’s suspicious activities extend beyond its financial operations.
According to a report by NCRI, Twitter significantly increased the value of cryptocurrencies listed on FTX. The report revealed that whenever FTX launched new coins, there were instantaneous price increases, largely driven by Twitter activity.
The analysis conducted by NCRI indicated that a significant portion (approximately 20%) of online discussions about FTX-listed coins involved bot-like accounts. Interestingly, these bot-like activities predicted the prices of many FTX coins examined in the data sample.
Although the bot activities were not directly linked to ftx themselves, they became more prevalent and unauthentic after the promotion of these coins by FTX. This indicated potential market manipulation through social media channels, raising concerns about the authenticity and transparency of FTX’s activities.
How do PEPE and PSYOP fit into the discussion?
Elon Musk, Twitter bots, PEPE and PSYOP in one sentence
In 2023, the crypto industry experienced a wave of meme coins. Pepe and Psyop stood out for their rapid rise to $1 billion in market cap. Concerns arose when NCRI performed a time series analysis of account creations related to Pepe.
The analysis detected abnormal spikes in new account creation, especially before the token launch.
These peaks occurred in September 2022 and more specifically on April 16, 2023, a day before the launch of PEPE. This pattern suggested possible manipulative tactics, such as using bots to artificially inflate the apparent popularity of these tokens.
Santiment’s social statistics further revealed suspicious activity. Social volume and dominance for Pepe peaked significantly after April 17. Social volume reached over 10,200 on May 5 and dominance peaked above 10%.
In addition, Elon Musk’s tweet on May 13 correlated with a new spike in volume and dominance. Whether this was a coincidence or not remains uncertain.
At the time of writing, Pepe’s dominance had dropped to less than 1%. Also, the social volume had decreased to about 100.
Source: Sentiment
As for Psyop, it was launched shortly after Elon Musk tweeted about a “Psyop” following a shooting incident in the US. The timing raised eyebrows and fueled speculation about possible links between Musk’s tweet and the token’s launch.
Elon and Doge
Elon Musk is known to deal with the Doge community through his tweets, often teasing and thrilling with his investors. But not all investors were happy with his actions, and a group of them filed a $258 billion lawsuit against him.
They accused Musk of driving up the price of Dogecoin with an astonishing 36,000% in two years before it crashed. The lawsuit alleged that he used his status as the world’s richest man to run and manipulate what they called the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme.
A key point in their case was Musk’s appearance on Saturday Night Live in May 2021, in which he played a “fictitious financial expert” and called Dogecoin “a hustle”.
The prevalence of inauthentic activity in crypto is a growing concern and poses a risk to investors. Manipulating such activities creates a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) effect, which can significantly affect the price of tokens or coins.
This phenomenon has led to instances of pumping and dumps in the crypto market, bringing scrutiny to the industry.
As the crypto space becomes more mainstream, the filing of Bitcoin [BTC] And Ethereum [ETH] ETFs, future regulatory policies will likely consider such manipulative practices.
As the industry evolves, investors should exercise caution and stay abreast of potential risks and fraudulent activity in the crypto market.
Investigation of the state of PEPE and PSYOP
The analysis of the daily time frame charts for PSYOP and PEPE revealed interesting patterns in their trading activities. PSYOP experienced a lack of interaction and low volume post-launch, leading to a significant drop in price, which fell by more than 99% from its original launch price.
However, around July 17, there was a remarkable upward trend, with the price rising by more than 697%. Despite this increase, PSYOP’s price did not reach the range it had seen at launch, indicating that it was still far from its previous levels.
Source: TradingView
On the other hand, PEPE showed more activities on his daily schedule compared to PSYOP. However, like PSYOP, PEPE had also lost a significant value of over 68% when its price range was compared to press levels at launch.
This suggested that bot-driven Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) had subsided and normal trading activity had returned to a greater degree.
Source: TradingView