Ether (ETH) has taken out the top spot on Twitter as the most hated of five cryptocurrencies studied, while the meme-token Dogecoin (DOGE) is the most liked.
The findings emerged from a new report by TRG Datacenters that analyzed a year’s worth of tweets between January 2021 and January 2022 concerning five of the most popular cryptocurrencies to figure out which digital assets were the most emotionally stirring on Twitter.
According to the analysis — which looked at Bitcoin (BTC), Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin, Ether and Litecoin (LTC) — Ether was firmly the most negatively associated, with 29% of all tweets containing a negative sentiment. The decision not to include Ripple, which has ardent fans but also very passionate critics, probably makes the study less comprehensive than it should have been.
The bulk of the criticism leveled at Ether concerned its speed compared to other layer 1 alternatives, as well as its energy costs. Peak Ether negativity from Crypto Twitter occurred when a bug caused Ethereum to briefly split into two chains in late August 2021.
Bitcoin was the second-most hated on Twitter, with a 27% total negativity score. Cardano followed a distant third with a 16% negative association. Meanwhile, Litecoin sat in fourth place with just 8% of all tweets having a negative angle.
The report collected data in such a way that negative sentiment tweets were analyzed based on the inclusion of the following phrases and the name of each cryptocurrency; “Hate,” “is a scam,” “disappointed with” “disappointed,” “dip in,” “bad,” “lost money with” “loss on.”
Dogecoin was the crowd favorite on the social media platform, with just 6% of all tweets concerning the popular memecoin containing some form of unfavorable sentiment. This means that 94% of all tweets concerning DOGE contain a positive slant, displaying the strength and cohesiveness of the token’s community on Crypto Twitter.
Dogecoin’s popularity was closely linked to the token’s healthy relationship with the social media platform’s new owner Elon Musk. Musk’s public decision to accept DOGE as payment for Tesla merchandise drove sentiment to all-time highs.
Chris Hinkle, chief technology officer at TRG Datacenters, drew attention to the different types of influence that Twitter has on the price of crypto assets:
“Meme stocks in particular appeared to be driven by retail investors. In the case of larger currencies such as Bitcoin, tweets have actually lagged price movements, implying some degree of institutional lean.”
“[This] means that small cap stocks and coins in general are experiencing a very real phenomenon of price fluctuations led by retail investors,” Hinkle added.
Related: Ice Cube backs DOGE and an ‘incredible and historical’ transaction
Hinkle went on to explain that the recent acquisition of Twitter by Musk may lead to a more retail-driven crypto market, claiming that Musk’s newfound influence may “perhaps pave the path for less algorithmic manipulation and the beginning of a new era of retail investors.”