Cheelee (CHEEL) is a short-form video platform on the BNB Smart Chain that rewards users for watching content. The project gained popularity for its incentive method and its native token CHEEL has showcased some impressive numbers.
However, there are genuine concerns regarding Chelee’s legitimacy within the crypto community, which we will be looking at in this article. We will explore the various aspects of the project that were exposed by enthusiasts.
So, let’s dive in.
What is Cheelee (CHEEL)?
Cheelee is a short-form video platform that rewards users based on time spent watching content. The project was based on the Attention Economy theory, which states that human attention should be converted into an income source using modern technologies.
Because a person spends an average of 2.5 hours per day on social media without getting anything in return, Cheelee (CHEEL) set out on a mission to provide its users with the opportunity to monetize their time spent on social media.
The platform uses NFTs and GameFi mechanics to create collections, loyalty levels, and marketplaces where users can make their contributions to the platform in the form of NFT Glasses, which is crucial to the Cheelee ecosystem. Cheelee converts watch hours into CHEEL tokens
The platform uses NFTs and GameFi mechanics to create collections, loyalty levels, and marketplaces where users can make their contributions to the platform in the form of NFT Glasses, which is crucial to the Cheelee ecosystem. Cheelee converts watch hours into CHEEL tokens
Every user that signs up to Chelee receives free NFT Glasses that can be later bought, sold upgraded, minted, staked, or collected on the platform.
Cheelee Tokenomics
At the time of writing, CHEEL is trading at $13.38 – up 1.8% in the last 24 hours. The network has a market cap of $720.19 million. There is a maximum supply of 1 billion CHEEL tokens, out of which, 53.83 million CHEEL are currently in circulation.
Cheele achieved an all-time high of $17.32 on July 16, 2023. The token’s lowest valuation was recorded on February 13, 2023, at $3.44.
Related Topic: Is PEPA INU (PEPA) 2.0 Fake? Unveiling The Truth
Is Cheelee a Scam?
Despite Cheelee’s promises and reasonably good valuation of its native token. The project was revealed to be a scam by users and market experts. Let us take a look at the key areas that exposed Cheelee’s shortcomings.
1. Fake Social Media Followers
It has been revealed that almost 90% of Cheelee’s followers on Twitter are fake. Out of the 62,000 followers, the majority are newly created profiles with single-digit followers and no posts.
This trick is usually done to dupe people into thinking that a project has a large following, making it seem credible to the eye.
Also, the majority of Cheelee’s 39,000 followers on Discord are fake accounts. This was discovered after an average of only 700 members were online on the Discord channel.
Meanwhile, on YouTube, the project added user reviews in comments even before the platform was officially launched, which is impossible.
2. Insider Trading to Inflate Cheelee (CHEEL) Prices
When CHEEL was listed, it was priced at $2. However, within a few days, the token reached $6, and its volume was up to $2 million. Experts argue this could be not possible under normal trading circumstances as the platform will need time to add users and gain popularity.
The only way it could be possible was if team members were involved in insider trading, meaning they bought and sold the tokens among themselves. Creating a fake volume and price increase to deceive unsuspecting investors.
Eagle-eyed sleuths discovered that the traded amount of CHEEL was always fixed, indicating they were being conducted using bots. This is a perfect case of wash trading, where the investor simultaneously sells and buys the same token to create artificial demand in the market.
This was proven in March 2023, when CHEEL was gaining while the rest of the market dipped. This was possible due to artificial pumping through insider trading. The team even bragged about the hike on social media, which isn’t a good look.
3. Wallets Not Adding Up
Cheelee wallets can only be created by downloading and installing the app on users’ smartphones. There are 10,000 app downloads and 6,000 registered wallets, which seems kinda odd because every user is supposed to get a CHEEL wallet.
Users have been complaining about not being able to create wallets and collect their reward tokens because the app wasn’t working normally. This means that the 6,000 wallets are fake or being used to conduct insider trading on exchanges.
4. Fake Viewers
Most influencer videos uploaded on Cheelee have over 200,000 views and 20,000 to 30,000 likes. This is despite only 10,000 people downloading the app.
Many users reported that their content received over 50,000 views within 2 days of uploading. The only answer to this is that the viewer count is being inflated by Cheelee to encourage users to remain on the platform.
Then there is the case of videos being taken from other platforms without the consent of its owners.
4. Questionable Funding
The Cheelee team declared recently that they raised $22 million in a Series C funding round. However, after taking a closer look, it was revealed that almost all of the project’s funders were Russian nationals.
The interesting fact is that Russia has been sanctioned by the West since the start of the conflict with Ukraine in February 2022. Therefore, Russian individuals or companies can’t invest in firms outside of the country through legal channels, indicating the source of Cheele’s funds is illicit.
Final Thoughts
Cheelee is an innovative new project in the crypto space. However, many aspects of the project, from its app downloads, active wallets, tokenomics, views and likes count, social media following, and even funding sources, seem to be either fake or illicit.
The purpose of this article is to give you an idea of how crypto projects can dupe users into thinking they are legitimate channels. Therefore, you must do thorough research when it comes to making investment decisions.
Read More: How Do You Spot And Avoid Crypto Scams?
