According to Cointelegraph, a crypto influencer known as 'Professor Crypto' has been accused of using bots to manipulate his social media metrics shortly after winning a 'best content creator' award at a crypto event. The allegations were made by the self-described sleuth 'ZachXBT,' who claimed that Professor Crypto used 'thousands of bots' to deceive people into believing he had significant influence. ZachXBT also suggested that this action could violate a United States Federal Trade Commission rule that prohibits the sale or purchase of fake social media indicators, such as followers or views generated by bots or hijacked accounts.
Professor Crypto has not yet publicly responded to the accusations but has removed several posts showing him collecting the award at the DeGen Summit in Singapore on September 17. The DeGen Summit, a TOKEN2049 side event, awarded 'Key Opinion Leaders' (KOLs), individuals whose opinions hold sway over a large group or industry. Professor Crypto, who has more than 1.34 million subscribers on his YouTube channel where he shares opinions and reviews on crypto exchanges, wallets, trending memecoins, and non-fungible token (NFT) projects, has been creating crypto content since August 2018.
Despite his large following, Professor Crypto's X account, created in February 2018, has only 132,000 followers and 102 posts, with the earliest post made on August 14. Web3 investigator Pix noted that only two of those posts came directly from Professor Crypto. Other industry commentators have expressed surprise at his sudden rise to prominence, with some claiming they had never heard of him before he won the award. NFT artist Matthew Varnell and Wildcat Labs co-founder Laurence Day were among those questioning his influence.
Professor Crypto did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment on the accusations.
