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Cryptocurrency misinformation and scams are on the rise of the fastest growing platform. Are you safe from scams? Is the information vetted? Is it even sound investment advice? Or are creators just trying to make a quick buck?
TikTok is no longer just a social app, it is a platform for knowledge, hacks & learning. Videos with the #LearnOnTikTok have amounted more than 492 billion views, and counting.
Users are not only consuming entertaining content, but they are taking financial advice. And with 47% of users being under the age of 30, as per reports by The Social Shepherd, the platform is making it easy for younger audiences to learn about different topic areas.
The aptly named FinTok is the corner of the platform that provides educational and financial advice around wealth management and investment. With the short entertaining video content there have been over 2.7 billion views of the hashtag. FinTok is expanding quicker than ever.
But FinTok isn’t alone. Cryptok is a growing niche within a niche with influencers who are claiming to be experts offering their tips and services to users. With the platform rewarding popularity over trustworthiness and regulated content, TikTok is rife with scams and misinformation.
Crypto scams are well documented in the media. You won’t have to look far till you see or hear a story of someone losing money and it being impossible to get back. The same dangers are appearing over on TikTok.
Videos are encouraging risky behaviors, guarantee returns and glamorise impulse decisions. Many videos don’t have disclaimers and to crypto newcomers the content can be misleading leading to poor financial decisions.
But with all this content on the platform, how much of TikTok’s crypto content is misleading its audience?
We examined 1161 videos from well-known crypto influencers on TikTok and identified them as misleading if a disclaimer was not present and if they urged individuals to: invest in particular coins, or other assets or imply that investment in the coin would guarantee a return.
A disclaimer had to be featured within the video or in the creator’s profile. This text should make it clear to viewers that the information presented is solely the creator’s point of view and not expert guidance. It would also encourage them to carry out their own investigation, get additional expert advice, or keep in mind that past market trends do not predict future results.
The Cryptok hashtag has over 1.6 billion views. We looked at 1161 videos from 594 different creators using popular hashtags and found the videos to have more than 660 million views.
We studied:
37% of all videos analysed were found to not feature a financial disclaimer and either encouraged users to invest their own money or implied a return on investment.
| Number of videos | 434 (37%) |
| Total Views | +189 Million |
The misleading content creators we analysed had a total following of over 35 million and an average following of 145K With Tiktok pushing popular content over fact-checked content even users who do not follow the accounts can access these videos via the for you page or search the hashtags.
| Total followers | +35 Million |
| Average followers | 144,999 |
Although not having a disclaimer present doesn’t make the video misleading. We found that only 10% of videos/profiles analysed featured a disclaimer or warning about investing in cryptocurrency.
With vs. without disclaimers
Out of 594 total accounts studied
| With (10%) | Without (90%) |
| 62 accounts | 532 accounts |
47% of all cryptok creators are trying to push their own services to make money. The more eyeballs on their content, the more likely users are to purchase additional services from the creator, especially if they believe they are guaranteed a return on investment.
Types of services being shilled
35% of the misleading videos use Bitcoin to push misinformation. A total of 53 different cryptocurrencies were mentioned in all of the videos flagged showing a variety of trades and investment advice.
| Rank | Currencies | Percentage |
| #1 |  BitCoin |
34.9% |
| #2 |  Ripple |
13.0% |
| #3 |  Ethereum |
11.6% |
| #4 |  Cardano |
5.6% |
| #5 |  Hbar |
3.2% |
| #6 |  Gala |
2.8% |
| #7 |  Shiba Inu |
2.8% |
| #8 |  Solana |
2.8% |
| #9 |  DogeCoin |
1.4% |
| #10 |  VeChain |
1.4% |
| #11 |  Stellar |
1.1% |
| #12 |  Nexo |
0.7% |
| #13 |  Reef |
0.4% |
Although the platform can be a great place to learn, It is important to note that cryptocurrency isn’t regulated and misinformation can easily spread. Always do your own research before taking any advice from the platform.
TikTok is built to promote videos to the user that are interested in them. If a user is interested in crypto content they are likely to be served crypto-related videos via the for you page. However, it is important to remember that no one can offer guaranteed returns. If it seems too good to be trusted, it more than likely is.
Just because a video has many thousands of likes and views does not make the content legitimate and trustworthy. If a creator is pushing their own advice or services they probably have an ulterior motive to create viral-worthy content. Take extra caution when clicking through to paid services
There are a few reasons why content related to crypto and investing is so popular on TikTok. One reason is that the platform’s primarily young user base is becoming increasingly interested in their own finances and planning for their financial future. Furthermore, TikTok’s short-form video format makes it easier for users to consume and understand crypto content. The hype around stock trading, crypto and other investment opportunities in recent times has also contributed to the popularity of such content.
Our research scraped 1161 videos from the following six trending crypto hashtags: crypto, cryptok, cryptoadvice, cryptocurrency, cryptotrading and cryptoinvesting. As content can be accessed from searching hashtags and being presented on the for you page, the top content that appeared under the hashtags was used.
We manually watched every TikTok video, starting from the videos that appeared first on the hashtag pages. We looked into each video to see if it contained misinformation judged against our definition.
Our judgement of a ‘misleading video’ was that a disclaimer had to be featured within the video or in the creator’s profile. This text should make it clear to viewers that the information presented is solely the creator’s point of view and not expert guidance. The disclaimer would encourage users to carry out their own investigation, get additional expert advice, or keep in mind that past market trends do not predict future results.
As well as a disclaimer, videos deemed to be misleading videos must also contain either; encouragement for users to invest in crypto assets or imply a return of investment.