Is More Text Equal to Research? A Showcase of Amateurish Behavior by Crypto KOLs
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
Is More Text Equal to Research? A Showcase of Amateurish Behavior by Crypto KOLs
Bull markets test a KOL's ability to call trades; bear markets test a KOL's performance skills.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: shushu
Crypto KOLs might be the most skilled practitioners of linguistic artistry in this industry. They can use "long-termism" to美化 a zero-return curve, "ecosystem empowerment" to package token unlock sell pressure, and even rebrand "affiliate links" as "free giveaways." While retail investors are still reading whitepapers, KOLs have already cracked the code of traffic—gilding their scythes with rhetoric. There's no true altruistic sharing here; behind every piece of crypto jargon from a KOL lies the same unspoken line: "I’ll dream it up, you pay for it." BlockBeats has compiled this KOL crypto jargon translation guide—because in a market full of method actors, understanding subtext is the only way to avoid being an extra.
Last time was about whale dump tactics—see: "How Whales Are Dumping This Cycle—Which Traps Have You Fallen Into?"
“Alpha Call”
"Alpha Call" is the most eye-catching phrase on KOL Twitter feeds, translating roughly to: "I’ve found a hidden gem—get in now!" But more often than not, the KOL has already accumulated a position at low prices and fears the project won’t gain traction, so they issue an Alpha Call to summon fans to carry the bag. If the project takes off? Everyone celebrates, and the KOL retweets triumphantly: "See how sharp my call was!" If it flops? The next Alpha Call is already queued up—after all, fans’ memories rarely last more than three days.
KOLs shouting Alpha Calls are like casino dealers—the louder they shout, the hotter their chips burn. They don’t care if you lose; they only care that you play.
Red flags:
-
Economic model mirrors $DOGE but with more aggressive token burns—we've put a mathematician’s hat on a meme coin
-
Strong community consensus—Telegram group hits 10k members in 3 hours—bots are ready, just need real users to fill the gaps
-
Core team from MIT and NASA—founder’s name might just be Mitchell, Ian, or Tony
"I Don’t Care If You Exit—But I’m Dumping Mine the Second I Get It"
"Bullish" is the most frequently used term in KOL tweets—short, emotional, effective. And “long-term bullish” is the ultimate flexible shield: if the price rises, they dig up old tweets: "Told you—I was bullish from day one!" If it crashes short-term? "Just market volatility—long-term value unchanged." If it drags down slowly over months? "The ecosystem needs time to mature—holders will win."
The truth may be far simpler: the project paid the KOL in tokens instead of cash, and the moment those tokens hit their wallet, they were swapped for stablecoins.
Classic lines:
-
Week 1: Short-term pullback is healthy profit-taking
-
Month 1: Bear market is perfect for product refinement
-
Month 3: Team is building a new blockchain game—dual-track strategy
-
6 months later: Beware of fake websites—only trust the community-rebuilt version
Long Text = Research
KOLs take promotional material from project teams, sprinkle in some technical terms and charts, and relabel it as “deep research.” Accuracy doesn’t matter—what matters is volume. Long threads impress fans into thinking it’s professional analysis. Some even paste ChatGPT-generated content directly into tweets, too lazy to remove AI’s default bold formatting.
This isn’t research—it’s “paid-to-research.” KOLs earn ad fees; retail loses real money.
Bonus tactic: KOLs often claim “many institutions are investing” as a get-out-of-jail-free card. It inflates the project’s prestige and absolves them: “So many smart money players are in—can’t blame me if it fails.” Who these institutions are or how much they invested? Vague. Fans won’t check anyway.
Red flags:
-
Strategic investment—paid 5% of tokens just to get their name listed
-
Ecosystem partnership—invited an intern from a big firm into the Telegram group
-
Institutional matrix—same owner registered 7 offshore shell companies
“Comparable-To” Rhetoric
“Comparable to XX—with XXx upside” is a favorite valuation trick. Example: “$XXX is the next ETH, current market cap only millions—100x potential!” Why it’s comparable or how it achieves 100x? Never explained. Fans see “100x” and go wild. If it pumps? “My call was genius.” If it dumps? “Market isn’t evolved enough yet.”
Classic lines:
-
Throughput is 100x Ethereum’s—testnet hasn’t launched yet
-
Ecosystem fund exceeds $500M—token market cap auto-increases post-unlock
-
Partnered with Amazon Web Services—uses AWS servers
Free Group “Traps”
Some KOLs run free groups that require members to sign up via referral links—fine in theory. But the “research reports” in group files are just Google-translated whitepapers. When members question why every recommended coin has crashed 50%, admins reply: “Your mindset isn’t ready—you can’t hold wealth-building secrets.”
Classic lines:
-
Knowledge monetization—selling courses + pyramid recruiting
-
Time-limited offer—if you don’t buy now, how am I supposed to exit?
-
Exclusive strategy—your trading fees fund my Porsche
The economics of crypto KOLs is essentially “attention arbitrage”—trading emotional appeal for traffic, traffic for money, and money for more emotional appeal. This article isn’t meant to condemn all KOLs doing genuine research in crypto. As Yond noted, KOLs need traffic and buying momentum—the lower the audience’s awareness, the better. Ideally, just shouting a ticker symbol should trigger blind buys. Content creators, however, must focus on logic, coherence, and depth. Content aimed at advanced users rarely drives large-scale buying, making ROI poor for projects paying for promotions. This dynamic fuels a “race to the bottom,” where noise drowns out signal, and bad content pushes out good.
At its core, KOLs don’t create real value or positive externalities. When intermediaries and rent-seekers become the dominant beneficiaries, the entire market resembles a cancer patient—tumors grow fatter while the host starves, eventually collapsing.
If “everyone is a KOL,” then real KOLs won’t be defined by follower count, but by those who consistently deliver high-quality content, build deep trust, and sustainably monetize. This means higher barriers—shifting from quantity competition to quality competition.
When KOLs talk about “vision,” retail wallets shrink. When KOLs preach “faith,” project tokens are busy exiting. When everyone teaches you how to get rich quick, simply not becoming fuel is a victory. In crypto, the ones who survive the longest are the real winners. Share in the comments: what other KOL red flags have you seen?
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
BlockBeats
