YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) — In an elaborate post on Reddit, an employee of a crypto startup has revealed worrying details of its dirty industry practices.
The user, who goes by the pseudonym ‘busterrulezzz’, shared their experience from working with a crypto company. According to his post, finding jobs in crypto was one of his objectives. So he started working for the unnamed startup in January 2022, only to find that everything was wrong with the young crypto firm.
The fact that a startup could be slightly disorganized did not surprise him. However, what shocked him was the blatant illicit business practices that the company adopted. Owing to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), he does not reveal the organization’s name in question. However, what he gives out is alarming. Here’s an excerpt:
“We cheated. What I mean is that we bought bots for our TG channels, we faked users in our Discord, and we partnered with dubious “influencers” to make it look like our products were far more popular than they really were. This kind of stuff is what gives crypto its bad reputation to the outside world, and I deeply regret having been a part of this for a short time,”
he revealed
Advising others to think twice before working for unknown companies, he alleges the startup even failed to pay him for his last week’s work.
Doubling down his attack on the company, ‘busterrulezzz’ slammed his former employers for acting like an “evil hedge fund” by partnering with dubious “influencers” and manipulating their Discord channel to fake popularity and demand, thus giving the crypto community a bad name.
Illicit activities in crypto: A pressing problem beyond startups
Illegal activities in the space are not unheard of. But unfortunately, the problem goes beyond crypto startups.
Even popular crypto companies have faced accusations of condemnable practices. For example, in January 2020, a study claimed market giant Coinbase discriminated against its employees.
The survey found black and women workers at Coinbase did not receive equal treatment like their fair-skinned or male counterparts. Many of them were underpaid, and a majority of those that quit or were sacked came from these groups.
Another aspect giving the crypto sector a bad name continues to be illegal transactions. Cases of dubious transactions and money laundering make the industry a target for many regulators.
According to a report by Chainalysis, cryptocurrency-based crime hit a new all-time high in 2021. Notably, illicit addresses received $14 billion compared to $7.8 billion in 2020.
However, while that is a staggering number, illegal activities constituted only 0.15% of the $15.8 trillion in transactions that Chainalysis tracked.
While the crypto sector continues to evolve, incidents of ‘dirty business practices’ by startups continue to hurt the sector’s reputation. However, with more people having crypto jobs speaking up, things will hopefully improve.