Crypto influencers get second wind after FTX collapse
Crypto bloggers and influencers have seen “massive” growth in engagement and viewership following the collapse of major crypto exchange FTX — which has made more people “crypto curious.”
Mason Versluis, known to his fans as Crypto Mason, who has amassed over one million followers on social media platform TikTok, told AIBC that he has seen a “massive” spike in his views since FTX filed for bankruptcy.
Versluis said he has seen a significant increase in engagement on his Instagram account over the past month. His reach – the number of unique accounts that have seen his posts – has increased by 84.9 percent and his overall engagement rate has risen by 25.7 percent.
He said it’s “quite normal” when major activity “bad or good” happens in the crypto space to see everyone flocking to social media.
He added that “unfortunately” people are attracted to chaos and love to see the “downfall” of somebody in this space, referring to Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX.
His Instagram has reached more than 770,000 accounts since the beginning of November.
Instagram gains, TikTok declines
Jordan Franklin, known to her 63,000 TikTok followers as The Happy Spender, has experienced a mixed response on her social media accounts after the FTX collapse.
She has even experienced some people “unfollowing” as TikTok is designed to give a “dopamine hit,” and crypto “no longer” has that effect.
Franklin stated that while her TikTok engagement has experienced some volatility, her Instagram audience is “steadily growing,” seeing a new wave of people who are “crypto curious,” and keen to learn despite the market turmoil.
Crypto influencers have been instrumental for many crypto projects and businesses to get exposure in the crypto community.
Some of popular crypto influencers include Ben Armstrong aka BitBoy, Ivan on Tech, and EllioTrades.
Some crypto Influencers can command lucrative rates too with Influencer Marketing Hub reporting that they can average anywhere between $500-$1,500 per thousand views, while those with higher profiles can command even more.
However, these same influencers have also felt the wrath of the public and regulators when the projects they promoted ended up tanking, or when they didn’t make the proper disclosures about being paid to promote the project.
Influencers in the spotlight
Since the collapse of FTX, many crypto investors are blaming the influencers who promoted the exchange, with Business Insider reporting on Dec. 2 that fans are calling out influencers for not warning them fast enough.
It noted that fans of prominent crypto influencer Andrei Jikh, who was promoting FTX to his two million subscribers on Youtube, are now calling him a “scammer” on his Instagram posts.
Versluis said that the FTX situation has made him even more cautious about what he promotes online. He believes that a lot of people who were “promoting FTX” were not in the wrong as nobody knew it would “happen like this.”
“We just saw the number two exchange in the world crumble in a matter of a week, this tells me that anything in this space can crumble in the blink of an eye.”
Franklin said that the recent negative events in crypto have been a “steep,” but important “learning curve.”
She was a “big fan of Celsius,” a crypto lending exchange which went bankrupt earlier this year, having had many of her followers using her referral code to create an account.
She added that being a crypto content creator in these times is a “big responsibility.”
Legal risks
Even non-crypto focused influencers are at risk of legal ramifications, particularly if they involve themselves in projects that turn out to be scams.
Most notably, Kim Kardashian faced charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this year over her promotion of EthereumMax, having later settled with the SEC for $1.26 million.
The recent FTX collapse led to a class action lawsuit filed on Nov. 15 against several high profile celebrities including NRL star Tom Brady, Seinfield’s Larry David and basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal who have all previously endorsed the defunct crypto exchange.
The impact of influencers has led to the sprouting of companies specifically offering crypto influencer marketing services, acting as the intermediary between influencers and potential clients. Some of the agencies in the space include Neospace, Flexi.io and Blockwiz.
A survey published by noxinfluencer on Aug. 22 stated that amongst the crypto influencers surveyed the average number of subscribers was “over 56.7 thousand,” with an average of “11.9 thousand” views.
