Following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the introduction of changes aimed at combating fake accounts, the issue of fake followers continues to persist on the platform. According to recent data from dappGambl, approximately 10% of the followers of crypto influencers and companies are fake.
In April 2023, Elon Musk introduced Twitter Blue, a subscription service priced at $8 per month, with the intention of increasing the platform’s revenue while making it financially unviable for bots and fake accounts to operate. However, despite these efforts, dappGambl’s investigation revealed that a significant percentage of followers from the most popular crypto accounts are still fake.
When analyzing the official accounts of cryptocurrency tokens and ecosystems, dappGambl found that Shiba Inu had the highest number of fake followers, accounting for 10.26% or around 80,000 accounts. Avalanche ranked second with 8.14% fake followers, followed by Polygon with 7.58% or approximately 73,000 fake accounts.
dappGambl suspected that the presence of fake followers is related to the popularity of the tokens. Through an analysis of social sentiment surrounding crypto accounts, dappGambl discovered that DAI is regarded as the most loved and popular coin on Twitter, while XRP is associated with scams and tends to be viewed unfavorably.
Crypto figures fake accounts
Among crypto influencers and entrepreneurs, Samson Mow had the highest percentage of fake followers in relation to his total following on Twitter. Mow’s account was followed by 26,000 fake accounts, representing 10% of his overall follower count.
It is worth noting that even prominent figures such as Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin have a significant number of fake followers, comprising nearly 6.5% of their respective follower counts.
Other notable individuals with a substantial presence of fake followers include MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor (6.16%), Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao (5.58%), and Tesla CEO Elon Musk (4.76%).
Interestingly, despite Elon Musk’s efforts to combat fake accounts, he himself is followed by over 6.7 million fake accounts, highlighting the persistence of the problem. Various methods can be employed to identify fake accounts, such as examining the account’s creation date, investigating the profile picture, bio, and tweets, as well as analyzing the account’s followers and those it follows.
Recently, a popular Twitter bot known as “Explain This Bob” was suspended after Elon Musk called it a scam, further emphasizing the ongoing challenges in tackling fake accounts on the platform.
