After many individuals speculated that cryptocurrency proponent John McAfee was charging for promotional tweets, the computer programmer is now openly selling his tweets for six figures each.
The Price of a Pump
British-American computer programmer and businessman John McAfee, who famously founded software company McAfee Associates, has been a controversial figure in cryptocurrency since — well — the beginning.
Now, after months of speculation following daily-turned-weekly cryptocurrency features on Twitter, McAfee has revealed that he indeed charges a premium for a promotional tweet — something that was not previously made clear during a run of significant market manipulation.
For a single promotional tweet, McAfee charges $105,000, according to the newly-founded McAfee Crypto Team. Claims the group’s official website:
Within the cryptocurrency industry, nothing can match the power of a McAfee tweet. Frequently, a single tweet has resulted in more than a million dollars of investment into an ICO, and multiple currencies have increased more than 100% in price from a single tweet.
The claim isn’t wrong. McAfee’s tweets notably became hot commodities after the controversial public figure tweeted about Verge (XVG), which subsequently caused a massive price spike.
Afterward, allegations were made that McAfee was extorting Sunerok, the creator of Verge. According to Verge promoter XVGWhale, McAfee flipped his support for Verge because the creator failed to pay him $1.1 million dollars in ether (ETH), threatening to destroy the project with manufactured FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt).
Verge ultimately did fall victim to FUD and, now, these allegations don’t seem that unbelievable. To this day, McAfee still denies he claimed Verge (XVG) had the potential to become the world’s leading privacy coin — and has deleted former tweets which indeed made bold statements about the cryptocurrency’s value.
I recommended Verge when it was less than a penny – saying it might rise 100% to two pennies. The price has been wrongly pumped beyond reason by referencing fake Twitter accounts and Instagrams which I have never had and then I am diss'd when I point out the fraud. Please stop.
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 30, 2017
Insider Trading
Of course, Verge isn’t the only cryptocurrency to get the McAfee treatment. In fact, he’s plugged more coins and ICOs than you can probably remember.
Coin of the day: BURST — First truly Green coin and most overlooked coin. Uses 400 times less power than Bitcoin. Super secure and private. Includes smart contracts, encrypted messaging, decentralized wallet, libertine blockchain. Most undervalued coin. https://t.co/vOJOtNYLXp
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 22, 2017
Motherboard collected all of the cryptocurrency bill’s tweets from December 15 until January 10 and analyzed them against the price histories of the cryptocurrencies he tweeted about. The report states:
After review, tweets from McAfee were reliably correlated with price spikes that sent cryptocurrencies worth pennies—even fractions of a penny—temporarily shooting upwards in value anywhere from 50 to 350 percent.
Motherboard also speculated — as did many others — that McAfee was taking part in pump and dump schemes to turn a quick and massive profit on cryptocurrencies ripe for a price spike.
Now, the revelation that he charges for tweets only leads to further speculation that McAfee has potentially been doubling down on his shady profiteering.
Either way, you probably shouldn’t put much stock in his opinion — given that he’ll shill anything for the right price.
What do you think of McAfee’s promotional tweets? Do you trust his opinion, or do you think he’s just little more than a paid shill? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Flickr, Verge, Twitter/@officialmcafee.