Cryptocurrency reviews for sale!

When cryptocurrency issuers want positive coverage for their virtual coins, they buy it. Self-proclaimed social media personalities charge thousands of dollars for video reviews. Research houses accept payments in the cryptocurrencies they are analyzing. Rating “experts” will grade anything positively, for a price. All this is common, according to more than two dozen people in the cryptocurrency market and documents reviewed by Reuters.

Earlier this year, Ukrainian start-up Hacken was looking to promote its new coin after raising $3 million online in late 2017. Chief Executive Dmytro Budorin and his team identified a list of almost 200 cryptocurrency social media personalities they thought could help them, he said. Hacken paid $7,500 for Christopher Greene, host of Alternative Media Television - a YouTube channel with more than 500,000 subscribers - to review its coin in a video, Budorin told Reuters.

In the 25-minute video, published on June 22, Greene raved about Hacken’s coin and business, describing it as a “huge market opportunity” with “potential 1,000x returns.” Nowhere in the video - which has more than 92,000 views - is Hacken’s payment to Greene mentioned. Greene, who used to work for wealth management firm Merrill Lynch, directs viewers in the first minute of the video to a disclaimer on his website that states he “may receive compensation for products and services” that he recommends.

There is no specific mention of Hacken, or any specific cryptocurrency issuers, paying him. Four days after the YouTube review was published, Greene turned to Twitter to brag that Hacken’s coin was up 14 percent on the day to $1.54 per coin. Some people paid attention. Carter Zurawel, a yoga instructor in Calgary, Canada, replied to Greene’s tweet: “That Hacken video was great man! Made me buy a couple hundred.” Hacken’s approach exemplifies a payfor-play hype machine that churns out recommendations viewed by hundreds of thousands of hungry investors.