The Paid Shill: Alexander Legolas
Alexander Legolas has been a prominent member of the Cardano community for quite some time, but was this carefully crafted persona created for the greater good of Cardano, or simply for the greater good of himself? Let’s find out together in this exclusive TCT investigation.
Who is Alexander Legolas?
Alexander Legolas is a prominent Cardano community member who has attracted thousands of followers and dozens of hardcore fans as he shared his thoughts on the projects he supported, beginning with his love for the Chilled Kongs Project (even after everything that has happened).
He is certainly a unique figure, with a writing style foreign to most; often sharing his embellished positive thoughts with an adulation most don’t even possess for their pets, let alone their investments. Not only does he speak in such an extremely hyperbolic manner for what he believes in, but he is also just as exaggerative when sharing his negative thoughts. He often puts the words he deems important in all CAPS to highlight the important points in his content, much the way Former President Donald Trump writes in his late-night Twitter (or now Truth Social I guess?) rants.
Additionally, he has shown to be nearly as defiant in the face of controversy as the Former President; dismissive and deflective of virtually every attack against him, attacking the characters of those who question him in the same childlike manner, and vengeful in his slanderous attempts to fight back against his rapidly growing opposition.
His eccentric personality has often been a divisive and controversial one, many have flocked to him for his financial predictions and thoughts on projects; with just as many fleeing far and away from his content for precisely similar reasons.
But why is Legolas so dedicated to providing financial predictions to his thousands of followers in an ecosystem that only has thousands of active daily traders, especially given he claims to provide no financial advice and has no direct monetary incentives to do so?
Is it simply out of the good of his heart, or to further fill his own pockets during the DeFi explosion the Cardano ecosystem has enjoyed?
The Red Flags
To conclude whether or not Legolas has altruistic or selfish intentions, one must first deduct the red flags that have been raised both by Legolas’ actions/statements and through the efforts of the Cardano community.
Legolas’ Content:
Initially when you first stumble across Legolas’ Twitter Account, his bio instantly seems humbling; describing himself as “just a monkey on Twitter.” However, the red flags start to raise high and mighty as the remainder of his bio focuses on ensuring you understand none of his content is financial advice, telling you to not expect “financial advice from monkeys on Twitter.”
Why would an individual dedicate the near entirety of their bio to display disclaimers that their content is not financial advice when self-described as just another Cardano community member sharing his thoughts on the ecosystem and the projects he loves?
It is because his content almost always focuses on price performance or possibly price predictions, with some of them extremely outlandish and questionable; especially given he only makes such predictions on tokens he is personally invested into his thousands of followers. Here are just a few examples to start.
Example #1: Legolas Predicts $MILK Will Increase 4000%-10500%
Here in this extremely long tweet, you can see Legolas make some immensely outlandish price predictions based on the performances of other DEXs operating within entirely different ecosystems; such as Raydium on Solana, Pancakeswap on BSC, and Uniswap on Ethereum. In his concluding remarks, he used these comparisons without any concrete data to make predictions stating $MILK would rise from the price of $4 to anywhere from $160 to $423 (a 4000%-10500% increase). Furthermore, despite stating nothing he posts constitutes financial advice; he constantly tries to assure his investors to not “DOUBT THE MATHS” or to “think again” if they ever think they are “too late to invest in $MILK. “
Moreover, Legolas also consistently promotes the Muesliswap $MILK Staking Vault, which offers users the ability to lock up and stake their $MILK for additional $MILK tokens; but fails to disclose these lockups last months to over a year before they can be redeemed in an extremely volatile cryptocurrency market. His endorsement of the staking vault conveniently is present as he constantly expresses his belief that $MILK holders who lock up their tokens “will still FORCE price per token up as a result of the scarcity”
Additionally, he writes his personal opinions almost as if they are fact, stating that with $MILK; “TOKENOMICS IS KING. He also stated that $MILK is extremely scarce with a circulating supply in the millions, despite the Cardano DeFi space only having a few thousand active traders. Legolas even made the blasphemous claim that “will constantly have a supply shock that will continue to cause price appreciation,” without providing any concrete data to support their argument, merely using his own personal thoughts to support his deceptive claims.
Example 2: Legolas Predicts $MILK Would Reach 20 $ADA
In a much shorter but similar manner, Legolas made a bold prediction that due to his understanding of tokenomics that he failed to disclose in the tweets; he believes $MILK would reach 20 $ADA per token “before you know it” and that you would “know this too” only “if you understand tokenomics” just as he does. With no concrete technical analysis or breakdown, he makes a bold claim that reached nearly 19,000 individual people regarding an extremely volatile cryptocurrency in an ecosystem that is easily manipulated by a few hundred thousand $ADA.
Example 3: Legolas Predicts 250X–1000X Gains On $MILK & $LENFI
Legolas made some extremely bold claims on June 30th regarding his price predictions for $MILK and $LENFI, stating he believes these tokens would be most likely to achieve a 25,000%-100,000% return; without providing substantial evidence or reasoning for this prediction. Legolas merely pointed towards the price performance of these tokens at the time of tweeting out the post, showcasing in the chart to the right that $MILK and $LENFI had achieved 16.5X and 7X returns respectively. This post he created was actually intended to be continuously updated, with two further tweets being sent out tracking the performance in a similar manner.
Example 4: Legolas States All $MILK Holders Are Not Late
In early July of this year, Legolas assured his followers that if they “have the misconception that they are late[,] it is vital to understand that this isn’t EVEN proper bullrun yet.” But he fails to mention what could happen to the price of these native tokens if $ADA were to reach new ATHs, well over $3.
Example 5: Legolas States Holding 1000 $MILK Will Allow Holders The Ability To Put A Down Payment On A Home
In a tweet posted July 4th of 2023, Legolas told his followers that “holders of 1000 $MILK tokens and above would put a down payment on their first home as a result of their holding this market cycle top;” without providing any evidence as to why Muesliswap would overtake Minswap in volume or maintain their position as one of the top DEXs over the future years.
In response to a follower (see image above) asking whether 500 $MILK would suffice for great returns, Legolas responded that the user would be surprised “how far half would go.” The user then responded once again, stating they were a little late at holding $MILK, purchasing at a rate of 9 $ADA per $MILK token; but maintaining their confidence in further returns down the line. Legolas responded boldly, stating that if the user bought in at 9 $ADA thinking he was late; “come 2025, you’ll realize exactly how early you are.”
In response to another follower who asked whether or not Legolas was referring to a down payment on a house totaling 10% down, 25% down, or 50% down; Legolas responded by stating he believes 1000 $MILK will cover 15%–20% of a home’s purchase price, “depending on the price of house.”
Example 5: Legolas Predicts A Cardano DeFi Bullrun in 2024
Legolas makes yet another wild claim to his followers on July 4th, stating that “buying and holding CARDANO DEFI is like DCA’ing into ADA on STEROIDS. PERIOD. If you know, you know and if you don’t, just so you [know], it is not late to get a good percentage of your ada holding[s] on these STEROIDS if you want your portfolio to grow WILD!” Similar to the previous examples, no concrete data or analysis was provided to make this claim; merely pointing towards anecdotal evidence of an image showing a successful portfolio chart. Moreover, he also stated that the
best is yet to come, a proper BULL RUN begins AFTER the BITCOIN halving in April 2024;” yet again lacking any evidence for his predictions.
Concluding Remarks On Legolas’ Content:
There are dozens of additional examples The Cardano Times could provide where Legolas makes questionable predictions lacking sufficient evidence to corroborate them, constantly promoting only a select group of tokens and making outlandish long-term predictions to instill hype in his followers and convince them to purchase more of the tokens he is invested in. These questionable tweets to his thousands of followers in a very small trading ecosystem can have considerable consequences, given the sizable coalition he has built following his trading plays.
But what is more troubling of all, Legolas is actually paid off by the teams he promotes constantly; let’s dive into his association with $MILK, $OPT, and $LIFI, the tokens he has been constantly promoting and make price predictions over the last few weeks.
*Disclaimer: The Cardano Times reached out to Alexander Legolas for a request to comment on his questionable tweets and to share his side of the story, we did not receive any response to any request over the course of this story’s creation.*
His Failure To Properly Disclose His Association With Cardano Projects He Promotes/Advertises:
Association With Muesliswap and $MILK
Legolas may describe himself as “just a monkey on Twitter,” but it seems a prominent team in the Cardano ecosystem has actually valued Legolas as far more than what he personally writes himself off as. Muesliswap, a leading Cardano DEX; has actually hired Legolas as a content creator, despite the fact that he merely discusses price performance rather.
Legolas has consistently promoted the $MILK token for over a year but only recently disclosed that he had been hired by the Muesliswap Team “for community building on Twitter.” (See his confirmation below) He also refused to disclose the hiring until two weeks after he began being compensated by their team and failed to disclose how much he was being compensated for his social media posts.
However, Legolas has often focused merely on the price of $MILK and the possible future returns rather than focusing on the Muesliswap ecosystem and what it has to offer. The Cardano Times reviewed a full list of tweets our team cataloged from Legolas’ feed, and we found that Legolas had focused on price rather than the technology behind the $MILK ecosystem over 80% of the time.
For reference, it is generally looked down upon for teams to discuss the price performance of their token; with Charles Hoskinson stating he would never discuss the fiat-based price of $ADA in any regard whatsoever. In traditional financial markets, it is also extremely looked down upon for companies to discuss the price of their own stocks; and in many instances for all financial markets, extremely illegal.
Association With OptionFlow and $OPT
Furthermore, Legolas has also promoted $OPT and made substantial price predictions for the token before and after its presale; but the OptionFlow team is composed of the original Muesliswap team, which compensates Legolas for his tweets. It is unclear if their agreement discusses the promotion of $OPT in return for considerable compensation, but it is surely a conflict of interest for Legolas to discuss the price on a token and team he is directly associated with and compensated by.
Attached below are examples of Legolas discussing price and making predictions for the $OPT token on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Association With Linkage Finance and $LIFI
Additionally, Legolas has also promoted the $LIFI token created by the teams behind Muesliswap and VyFinance; once again creating a conflict of interest given he is directly compensated by the Muesliswap team. Legolas consistently discussed price rather than what Linkage Finance had to offer, much the same way he had done with OptionFlow.
Attached below are examples of Legolas discussing price and making predictions for the $LIFI token on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Concluding Remarks
To be extremely clear, The Cardano Times extended the opportunity for the Muesliswap team to share their side of the story as well as Legolas’ perspective on the report, but we did not receive any response to our multiple requests for comment before publishing the report.
From what our team has gathered, the Muesliswap team has hired Legolas; a vocal $MILK supporter long before he had ever been compensated, to discuss the price performance of their tokens and promote their ecosystem to the thousands of followers has amassed over the years.
Legolas also heavily promotes tokens he only is heavily invested in or associated with, to which he has promised to take profits “as needed” despite telling holders to wait until the “bullrun” of 2024–2025. His association with the Muesliswap team, and by extension the OptionFlow and Linkage Finance Teams; Legolas creates a serious conflict of interest each and every time he predicts the price of these native assets or sets targets for future performance, which is not only unethical, but oftentimes illegal in virtually all financial markets given his association to the projects he promotes.
This individual has amassed thousands of followers providing predictions on the Cardano DeFi market and NFT space for quite some time, with Legolas making some considerably accurate predictions in the past regarding the performance of $MILK; but providing financial advice in the form of degen-esque tweets with the disclaimer that it isn’t actually financial advice is hurtful for the Cardano community in the long run. Moreover, although Legolas states he is not providing financial guidance to his followers; he has consistently shown himself to advise his followers on how to invest and has tenaciously motivated them to invest in the tokens he has extreme financial stakes in or direct association to.
The cryptocurrency industry has been plagued by self-proclaimed experts who allege to have cracked the code to securing life-changing “generational wealth” (as Legolas describes it) and are generous enough to share their methods with the world. They attempt to create a sense of trust with their viewers, assuring them consistently they are on the right path when questioned; causing vulnerable investors to lose tens of thousands if not hundreds to hyped-up presales, predatory public launches, rugpulls, pump and dumps, and tokens with poor tokenomics.
When is enough, truly enough?
