Cryptocurrency seems a tricky investment to a lot of people out there. This may be because of the volatility that the crypto market faces or the lack of knowledge regarding cryptocurrencies.
Well, if you are new in the market, you may have to be aware of all the concepts used in the crypto market.
One such concept is Cryptocurrency shilling. Have you ever heard someone saying “ best cryptocurrency to ever emerge” or someone has advised you to invest in a particular stock before the price increases? In case this has happened to you, you have experienced crypto shilling.
Crypto shilling is nothing but simply advertising the crypto or a project before it is ruggedly pulled. It means to advertise crypto so much before it gets abandoned or liquidated by the owner of the project.
What Is Cryptocurrency Shilling?
Cryptocurrency shilling refers to the process of advertising a specified project or cryptocurrency before the project ends in the rug pull.
To understand it in a better way, cryptocurrency shilling, a person may engage in the endorsement of a particular cryptocurrency, it means that they are shilling the crypto.
The main goal of shilling is to create a buzz around so that people are influenced to buy that crypto. When people will start buying cryptocurrency, the demand for the currency will increase.
When the demand will increase, ultimately the price of the currency will also increase. So, this whole process of advertising the crypto and increasing the price is called Cryptocurrency Shilling.
What Does Shill Mean In Crypto?
Shilling means to promote or advertise a token or a coin. This practice is used to promote and increase the price of a particular token. It is done to make more profits for the existing investors in that firm or cryptocurrency.
Some individuals also choose to promote the token if they are getting paid to do so.
Usually, the whole practice is considered to be a negative act by the individual to gain personal gain from that particular cryptocurrency.
Any Shiller who promotes a coin is not transparent and they do it without admitting that they are promoting cryptocurrency.
Mostly, you will come across paid Shiller’s only who take money to promote a cryptocurrency but the following circumstances also contribute to the reason a person chooses shill.
- In case a person has bought a coin at a very low price in the hope that they will sell them for profit when it will be time.
- A person is a member of the marketing team. He may want to increase consumer interest in the token and increase the demand to increase the overall price.
Also Read: Shilling Meaning in NFT
Is Shilling Crypto Illegal?
Yes, Shilling is for sure illegal in any financial market. But being a crypto market new for a lot of people, the rules are not that strict or rigid. There is still no information provided on what kind of marketing is legal or illegal.
The laws regarding Crypto advertising or shilling are yet not properly discovered and hence a lot of people take advantage of the same.
There are times when different laws can govern how the cryptocurrency will be regulated in a country. This makes a huge difference and these are easy to get through.
Where Can I Shill Crypto?
Well, when it comes to shilling, there is no way that the person will come and tell you to invest in particular crypto so you can earn good profits. They do not make any direct claims that you will get the profit.
They usually use alternate or indirect methods to do so.
Here, we have listed all the methods that one can use for Crypto Shilling:
1. Paid Method
So, this is one of the common ways that you can use cryptocurrency. In this method, usually, the other person does not care about the legitimacy of the information.
They prefer to promote the token for the money. On the internet, you will come across different websites, blogs, or projects who choose to publish all this information for some fee.
There are also times when this information also shows up on the newswire or is promoted by mainstream media. You need to be careful of such a form of the shilling as many top Shiller will not hesitate to pay a small fee amount to get the required profit.
2. Reddit
Certainly, Reddit is one of the most used platforms for users especially when they need the latest information for any topic including Cryptocurrency.
Almost all the coins, assets, or tokens have their subreddit. But on these subreddits, most people find fake news, speculations, or shills.
If you choose to decide based on Reddit about which cryptocurrency you are going to buy, think about it again. Moreover, there are times when you may see a paid advertisement on the top of the page.
This is usually done to attract the users towards the coin and influence them to buy the coin.
3. BitCoin Forums
People look for Bitcoin forums when they need some information regarding cryptocurrencies. Well, these forums started only to discuss Bitcoin but now you will find discussions regarding different cryptocurrencies on these forums.
One thing that you will have to keep in mind is when you will switch to the altcoins section, you are mostly going to get shilling attempts only.
Mostly, these are paid advertising campaigns so that people can know more about a coin or a token. Therefore, you will have to be aware when you choose to buy bitcoin based on Bitcoin talk.
4. Social Media
Well, this is a quite common method used for Shilling. A lot of social media influencers promote a cryptocurrency on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media platforms.
Twitter and Facebook are the most used platforms for shilling. Influencers try to tweet as much as possible to get social attraction towards a particular token or a coin.
Though this is not the greatest method to do it, with this, they still manage to get considerable attention. Social media shilling is common for altcoins and ICO tokens which will not bring anything to the table and will end up in a rug pull.
When it comes to Facebook, there is not much difference. There are different groups available on Facebook where you will find different shills. People will post in these groups in the favour of the coin.
Usually, these are scams and useless. In most cases, you can not trust the information that you will get on social media.
5. Team Members Or Founders
Well, if you are a business owner, you will also want your business to succeed. In the same way, all other business owners also want to succeed including the ones behind cryptocurrency projects.
What most business owners do is advertise the project and then hype it to a point where they will start getting funding and attention.
It is certainly not always important that the business owner will try to scam you but you still need to see if the other person is overselling it.
Steps To Avoid Being A Victim Of A Crypto Shill
Now, you need to keep yourself safe from all the shills. This can lead you to lose a lot of your money.
If you also wish to avoid Crypto Shilling, here are some things that you can do:
- Make sure to research on your own. You need to collect all the related information and then choose to invest.
- Before trusting any individual, you will have to ensure to check their background and credentials. Check if they have ever invested in Cryptocurrency. In case there is no such history available, we will suggest you drop the plan.
- One thing that influences other people to invest in a particular cryptocurrency is that other people are doing so. You need to leave this attitude and then choose the one which is fundamentally strong.
- Even if a celebrity is promoting a particular coin or token, It does not always mean that they will be right.
Winding Up
Shilling is certainly illegal but is done to an extent in the market that it can affect the decision of the buyer.
If you are also investing in cryptocurrency, you need to make sure that you have gone through all the fundamentals of the coin or token. Keep yourself safe from such shillers and invest only after researching.
