Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms for the crypto community to connect and share insights with each other. Some of the most popular crypto coin accounts and crypto influencers on Twitter have gained thousands, if not millions of followers. However, some of these accounts are seeing an influx of fake followers.
Having fake followers can inflate their perceived influence and reach, undermine their credibility, mislead investment decisions, and can also diminish the value of genuine influencers, ultimately hindering the quality and credibility of the crypto influencer space. dappGambl uncovered the Twitter accounts with the most fake followers by analyzing the most popular crypto coins and influencers to see who was the worst offender.
Up to 10% of followers from the most followed crypto accounts are fake
Twitter has a big influence on crypto stock prices and is one of the most powerful tools for sharing information and creating hype around cryptocurrency. A mere tweet from a popular crypto influencer has the ability to cause the price of a coin to fluctuate dramatically.
However, our research into influential individuals and crypto coins on Twitter has unearthed some disconcerting truths about the presence of substantial fake follower counts among those with influence.
Shiba Inu Coin, one of the most popular meme coins, has topped the list of crypto coin Twitter accounts with the highest number of fake followers. 10.26% of Shiba Inu Coin’s Twitter followers are fake, meaning that of the coin’s 790,000 followers, over 80,000 are not real people. The high number of fake followers could be due to the popularity and the newness of the coin, with bots trying to artificially increase the number of followers to make it seem even more popular than it is.
Avalanche, another popular cryptocurrency, has a total Twitter following of over 946,000. Research from dappGambl found 8.14% of these are made up of fake followers, meaning that over 74,000 of their followers are fake. As crypto influencers often promote the coin, putting it in the public eye may have led to some people creating fake accounts to follow it.
Polygon has over 976,000 followers on Twitter with research finding that 7.58% of these followers are fake, the coin is estimated to have over 73,000 fake followers. This inflation of the coins following can lead to investors overpaying it, making it more difficult to assess its true value.
Dai (DAI) is the most loved coin on Twitter whilst Ripple (XRP) is the most hated
dappGambl analysed the social sentiment towards the biggest crypto coin accounts on Twitter to see which was the most loved and hated coin online. Dai coin come out on top with the most positive reactions and gained a score of 9 out of 10. Meanwhile, the account with the most negative response on social media was Ripple with a score of 4.1 out of 10, making it the most unpopular coin.
Tweets accusing Ripple of being a scam as well as not being a “real cryptocurrency” are some of the most common negative comments towards the coin. Tweets featuring the Dai coin use more positive messaging, explaining the coin is the “future of money”. As DAI is a decentralized stable coin its price doesn’t fluctuate, leading to it having a more positive response than volatile coins such as Shiba Inu Coin.
Samson Mow, known as @Excellion on Twitter, has gained over 260,000 followers on the platform. With approximately 10% of which being fake, the influencer has amassed over 26,000 bot Twitter followers. As a popular influencer on the social media platform, Mow having such a high percentage of fake followers could potentially undermine his authority.
Jack Dorsey, former Twitter’s CEO, is among the most prominent figures in the crypto sphere. Known as @jack on the platform, he stands out with an impressive follower count of over 6.5 million. However, with this vast following comes over 560,000 fake followers, as 8.62% of Jack’s followers are reportedly fake.
Raoul Pal, renowned for his insights into the crypto industry, has gained a following of over 503,000 followers on Twitter under the handle @RaoulGMI. However, approximately 6.16% of Pal’s followers, which amounts to roughly 31,000 accounts, are suspected to be fake.
Over 6.7 million of Elon Musk’s Twitter followers are fake
Despite not making it in the top 20, Elon Musk claimed 30th place on the list. By analysing both the number of followers as well as the percentage of fake followers he has, research found that of Elon Musk’s 141.6 million followers 4.76% are fake meaning he currently has over 6.7 million fake followers.
dappGambl Reveals 5 Ways to Spot if a Twitter Account is Fake
Over the past month searches for “how to tell if a Twitter account has fake followers” have increased by 150%“ as well as “how do you know if a Twitter account is real” which grew by 120%. Experts at dappGambl have revealed the top 5 ways to spot fake accounts on Twitter.
1. Check when the account was created: Fake accounts are usually created recently, so if an account was created within the last few months it may be a warning sign that the account isn’t real
2. Does the account have a profile picture? Fake accounts often use stock photos, images that don’t belong to the person they’re claiming to be or have no picture at all.
3. Check the account’s bio: Fake accounts tend to have very short bios and provide little information about the person behind the account.
4. Look at their tweets: Fake accounts often tweet very frequently, their tweets may be repetitive or contain spammy links.
5. Check the account’s followers and following: Fake accounts usually have a very high number of following and a very low number of followers.
Methodology
Using Follower Audit we searched the top crypto coins and Twitter crypto influencers to find the number of followers as well as % of fake followers. To find social sentiment on Twitter we used Crowdsense AI. This data is all correct as of 31/05/23.