Elon Musk’s AI chat bots may be playing a bigger role in artificially boosting the prices of altcoins than expected, according to a recent study. The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) studied over 3 million tweets related to 18 altcoins such as The Sandbox (SAND), Gala (GALA), Gods Unchained (GODS) and LooksRare (LOOKS) posted between Jan. 1, 2019 and Jan. 27, 2023.

The research revealed that Twitter bots had a significant impact on the value of these cryptocurrencies. In fact, half of the FTX-listed coins showed signs that the inauthentic tweet volume had predicted subsequent price changes. This led to questions about whether FTX or Alameda Research had a hand in coordinating the bot activity.

The study also showed that these artificial tweets increased after FTX posted about the token on social media, suggesting that bots may be a powerful tool in the crypto industry, especially when it comes to jump-starting crypto stocks and all crypto in one place.

Musk’s tweets influence PSYOP and PEPE

Research into the impact of bot activity and Elon Musk’s crypto-related tweets on two recent memecoins, PEPE and PSYOP, suggests that both of these factors have played a role in affecting their prices.

NCRI noticed a sudden increase of newly created bot accounts prior to the launch of PEPE, all of which tweeted about one of the two coins.

Pepe Coin and PSYOP, which leveraged memes, were also given a boost by two of Musk’s tweets that gave a nod to each of the tokens. Musk’s May 13 tweet of a Pepe meme caused the token’s price to jump over 50% within 24 hours.

In addition to Musk’s tweets, an orchestrated effort to use bots to increase the token’s popularity was detected in the form of a surge in account creation a day prior to Pepe’s April 17 launch.

The study’s researchers said that this phenomenon could also affect stocks and other securities, as was seen in the social media frenzy surrounding so-called “meme stocks” such as Gamestop and AMC in 2022.

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