A 25-line check for botted crypto KOL accounts before you pay them

Paying a crypto KOL is mostly a bet on whether their audience is real. Follower counts are easy to fake. Engagement patterns are harder.

We vet KOLs for a living, so here is the first-pass check we run before anyone looks at a wallet or a rate card. It will not prove an account is clean. It tells you which accounts deserve a closer look.

function kolRedFlags(k) {
  const flags = [];
  const engagement = k.avgLikes + k.avgReplies + k.avgReposts;
  const er = engagement / k.followers;
  if (er < 0.002) flags.push('engagement under 0.2% of followers');
  if (k.avgReplies / Math.max(k.avgLikes, 1) < 0.01)
    flags.push('almost no replies for the likes');
  const growth = k.followers30dAgo
    ? (k.followers - k.followers30dAgo) / k.followers30dAgo : 0;
  if (growth > 0.3) flags.push('followers up more than 30% in 30 days');
  if (k.topRepliersShare > 0.4)
    flags.push('a handful of accounts write most of the replies');
  if (k.promoPostsShare > 0.5)
    flags.push('more than half of recent posts are paid promos');
  return { engagementRate: er, flags };
}

The thresholds are starting points, not rules. Tune them to the niche: a memecoin caller and a DeFi researcher have very different normal engagement.

What each flag catches

Bought followers inflate the denominator, so the engagement rate collapses. Bought likes rarely come with replies. Sudden follower jumps usually mean a purchase or a giveaway. Reply rings show up as the same few handles under every post. And an account that is mostly ads has an audience that has learned to scroll past them.

What it misses

Wallet behaviour. The most expensive KOL problem is not fake followers. It is a real audience being sold into by the KOL's own wallet. That needs on-chain checks, which we cover in our crypto KOL due diligence checklist and the open crypto KOL campaign guide.

If you are pricing streamers rather than X accounts, the same idea applies to live viewers. We put that maths in a free streamer sponsorship cost calculator.

Feedback on the thresholds is welcome in the comments.