https://mashable.com/article/influencers-altcoin-scams
Earlier this month, the billionaire mega star posted something a bit out of the ordinary to her Instagram Stories. Kardashian was promoting a new alternative cryptocurrency, or altcoin, called Ethereum Max.
YouTubers, streamers, and all kinds of social media influencers are jumping aboard the altcoin train. They're urging their followers to look into new altcoins on a regular basis, if not flat out encouraging them to invest.
"As soon as you could exchange Bitcoin for money, every scammer came out of the woodwork," he said. "A lot of people [involved in crypto] have a history of scams."
"What you've described is called pump and dump," Springer explained in a phone call where we walked through the various altcoins and their marketing schemes. "It could also be a ponzi scheme or a pyramid scheme or even both."
https://twitter.com/user/status/1396873347061882891
https://twitter.com/user/status/1405791405444780032
Beyond being paid to simply market altcoins, some influencers have more vested interest in promoting certain cryptocurrency.
Sam Pepper was a popular YouTuber who was accused of rape and sexual assault in 2014. Since then, he has re-emerged as a TikTok star and taken up promoting altcoins. In April, Pepper was accused by his followers of being part of an altcoin scam.
https://twitter.com/user/status/1400957268678434817
Mark Cuban, the billionaire tech investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, wrote a blog post on June 13 that hyped up two specific alternative cryptocurrencies, including TITAN. At the time, TITAN token was trading as high as $65.
Just four days later, major investors bailed, and the coin's value plummeted. It's currently worth $0.0000000851. In an interview with Bloomberg, Cuban says he lost money from investing in the coin. He chalked up the bad investment to being "too lazy to do the math."