But the second-biggest spending item in Q2 2024, after sponsorship, was influencers. And if France has had its share of scandals on this front, even though its laws are fairly strict, imagine the mess in countries with a far lighter touch.
Polkadot works with Lunar Strategy, which also handles KOLs4 for Immutable, MultiversX and Oasis. In reality, it means paying people… to say nice things about Polkadot. Without saying so.
Invoice from Lunar Strategy to Polkadot for February 2024
I was able to see two different briefs, one for Polkadot and one for another brand handled by Lunar, which state plainly that there is no need to mention that they are being paid.
In May and June, 16 people were paid, mainly to post. For two of them, no posts could be found, either because they were never made, or because they went out on more discreet platforms such as Discord or Telegram.
None of them says it’s an ad. Just one mentions a collaboration, without explaining that he is paid (and only in the description of an old YouTube video). Or by whom.
Another invoice, for the June 2024 campaign
And yet they all talk about Polkadot AI, a project launched in mid-April. Before that launch, no major article or influencer had mentioned it. In fact, nearly half of the 16 influencers had never mentioned Polkadot before. Only one had talked about it more than… twice.
But their advice is unequivocal, and they each post between 3 and 9 times.
Ted Pillows, for example, suddenly starts analysing DOT and making price forecasts for his 137K followers. He has mentioned DOT only once since, on 5 October… around the same time as several of his little pals.
Same story with Samuel Xeus, who runs the same promo for Polkadot AI, then ties it to RWA5, the big trend of the moment. He had never mentioned DOT before, and stops talking about it after July.
These threads and posts are read millions of times and all use the same arguments (which happen to be the brief’s), so there is no way this wording is the product of their own thinking. Especially since the two-step rhythm (AI, then RWA) is very pronounced, and happens at identical times.
Above all, this “thinking” is mixed in with their usual content. At no point can you tell that these people are writing what they were asked to write.
0xFinish, for example, explains on three separate occasions why DOT is a game-changer for RWA.
This is plain and simple disguised advertising, meant to artificially manipulate the price of DOT.
I won’t publish all fifty or so tweets, because they are almost all identical, but the operation is an eye-opener, in substance as much as in form.