The Crypto Boom Runs on 'Crypto Influencers' Like ‘BitBoy_Crypto,’ an Untrained Atlanta YouTuber

hubie writes:

Critics say it's a profession riddled with ignorance, conflict and moral hazards:

When the bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius began foundering last month, Ben Armstrong was among the industry personalities leading the online charge against the firm.

"You can't possibly EVER support Celsius Network or [CEO Alex] Mashinsky in any way," Armstrong, who goes by the moniker Bitboy_Crypto, told his nearly 900,000 Twitter followers after Celsius froze all depositors' money in June.

There was only one problem: Armstrong had been central to encouraging them to deposit their money with Celsius in the first place.
Armstrong had talked up the company often on his daily YouTube show and, just two weeks earlier, even appeared with Celsius's chief executive on its weekly promotional video. ("Atlanta is famous for BitBoy, no longer for CNN," Mashinsky had said admiringly.)

Armstrong is a leading example of a crypto influencer. One-part media personality, one-part untrained investment adviser, the 39-year-old Georgia native wields significant power in the world of cryptocurrency investment, steering tip-hungry online trawlers to the latest token. [...]

BitBoy's rise - and even his recent Celsius wobble - highlights how low the threshold can be for gaining power amid the morass of gamified finance. In the land of crypto, the one-eyed man is king - and the line between carnival barker and investment guru extremely difficult to find.

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