[MetaMorph.pro](https://metamorph.pro) just launched its decentralized exchange platform (DEX) with one of the worst _guerrilla web marketing_ I’ve ever seen. This is a textbook case of shady & bad practices, astroturfing and paid bots, let me explain:

Everything began with a post on Reddit [/r/0xProject](https://www.reddit.com/r/0xProject/comments/9yxvec/binance_vs_metamorphpro_0xprotocol/) that attracted my attention, because I’ve never heard of MetaMorph.pro before, and because the user /u/[**Flucboii**](https://www.reddit.com/user/Flucboii) seemed to be correct

The post “Binance vs MetaMorph.pro” has 6.2k claps on Medium, which is insane for a random post about a recently-launched DEX (for scale, [my post with 100k reads has 1.6k claps](https://medium.com/@MaxenceCornet/coinhive-review-embeddable-javascript-crypto-miner-806f7024cde8), **and most Medium posts by IDEX, the most used and popular DEX,** [**have less than 1k claps**](https://medium.com/aurora-dao))

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*YbD1kfkOGFEeoAcslOVd1g.png)

Furthermore, every post by MetaMorph.pro on Medium has approximately the same amount of claps, around 6.2k:

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*j0Wl9YlP-A0yxljnAGRP5Q.png)

6.3K for “Exodus vs MetaMorph.pro”

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*YOQxUeEBmwjU9-dZXl8c5A.png)

6.4K for “IDEX vs MetaMorph.pro”, can you notice the pattern ? ;)

Now let’s dig into the people that clapped the posts:

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*htrKPQn1LxKhj6E6wlLWFA.png)

The users are all Medium non-members, and all names share the same pattern: 2 letters for the first name and then a random last name, let’s check their profile:

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*tTT3MbvzXEqKpUewe_Te4Q.png)

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*bFYR-sPiBNtWUIQ6nk-U0w.png)

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*Fq_KDAtndFLSyz5mDAYEDw.png)

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*zeu1f6rLzvgvlA8Io_vY0A.png)

It seems like “Da niel”, “En Riequ”, “Jo Shua” and “Ja Mesre” really love MetaMorph.pro, they are clapping every Medium post by MetaMorph.pro, and of course they haven’t ever clapped anything else.

Every single clap out of the ones I’ve checked are from this kind of user account

So, we can see some obvious usage of bots on Medium, let’s now check how they promoted the DEX on Reddit:

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*w5_o4-sGO9DTvNeKpHGzOQ.png)

Of course, people on /r/ExodusWallet are rooting against Exodus…

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*F_2TGceTZ4PQQGW3qf65CQ.png)

LOL at the most upvoted comment, seems so legit

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*MISi7H2hgayrunZEn3V5dw.png)

Everybody seems to be rooting for the unknown DEX rather then IDEX, it seems so legit again

If you’ve ever used Reddit, you know that those comments are not natural, they are either generated by bots, or written by paid users that have no idea what they are talking about, good ol’ [astroturfing](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/6cy10r/whats_astroturfing/).

Now the best thing is that the marketing department of MetaMorph.pro doesn’t even understand the market, Exodus _is a wallet,_ it does not compete at all with a DEX, it’s just 2 completely different things, the same thing applies for Shapeshift.

The whole “Exodus vs MetaMorph.pro” or “Shapeshift vs MetaMorph.pro” doesn’t make any sense.

At least IDEX is a DEX, and Binance is an exchange, so “IDEX vs MetaMorph.Pro” or “Binance vs MetaMorph.Pro” isn’t totally absurd.

**As a conclusion:**  
\- If you want to promote your recently launched DEX, don’t use bots to promote your posts, or any shady technique  
\- If you do use bots, at least don’t use the same pattern for the name generation of every users  
\- **If I can’t trust you on your marketing techniques, I won’t trust you to handle my (crypto-)money**

Feel free to reach out on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/MaxenceCornet) if you have comments or questions. You can also check my small game [cryptoguessinggame.com](https://cryptoguessinggame.com/)

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