Crypto returns are worse if Twitter bots drive engagement: Study
Crypto projects with more posts from Twitter bots tend to have lower returns over the long-term, according to a study from two Yale University academics. The researchers examined more than one million tweets about 48 different cryptocurrencies created between 2019 and 2021. All had a fundraising goal of more than $1 million via token sales. Their study focused on projects including axie infinity (AXS), cowswap (COW) and polygon (MATIC) leaving out bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH). All had a fundraising goal of more than $1 million via token sales. A system to measure a so-called “engagement coefficient” quantified the level of interest and interaction displayed by social media users. “Low engagement coefficients signal a lack of interest, while high engagement coefficients signal artificial activity which is likely from automated accounts known as bots,” Prof. Tauhid Zaman and PhD student Khizar Qureshi wrote in the paper. “We found that the [ engage ment coefficient] was correlated...