Crypto election interference reaches dog mayor of New York

Dog coin-loving crypto bros caused chaos for New York City’s dog mayoral election earlier this month when they interfered in the race to pump a meme coin named after one of the leading candidates.

According to its website, New York’s NYC Dog Mayor competition was “founded to create something fun and joyful for people at a time in which many are struggling; to provide a unique opportunity for NYC community development; and to present politics and civics in a positive, educational, and compelling way (for once.).”

So-called “doggy influencer” Bertram the Pomeranian, who has nearly 400,000 followers on Instagram, was already among the frontrunners to snatch victory.

However, his bid for the title was further boosted when holders of the namesake meme coin BERT began to employ underhand tactics to drum up voters and even discredit Bertram’s opponents.

This was done, according to one rival dog owner, “to pump their valueless shitcoin.”

Olivia Caputo , the owner of one of Bertram’s biggest rivals, Enzo the Shih Tzu, posted a lengthy statement via Instagram announcing her — and her dog’s — withdrawal from the mayoral race and explaining how it had “turned into a catalyst for spreading hate, negativity, and threats of violence towards Enzo.”

Caputo alleges in her statement that BERT coin supporters were “offering payment/giveaways to sway people to vote for Bert,” and said that “the way they are speaking in their group chats indicates it’s clearly a pump and dump scheme, which people will ultimately suffer harm from.”

Caputo told The New York Times that she first became suspicious when, in a previous voting round, the number of votes being cast for Bertram saw a jump of more than 3,000 over the previous round.

She claimed that the increase happened at the same time as Bertram started to see increased support on social media and even financial incentives in return for votes.

She also claims to have seen Telegram chats in which Bertram’s supporters stated they would use the platform to “pump the price.”

The coin, which has been trading since mid-October, did experience a spike this week, jumping from $0.0017 on Tuesday to $0.054 on Thursday. This is despite Bertram dropping out of the race at the final stage, with his owner Kathy Grayson saying, “The whole thing has been in a way, darkly hilarious.”

“It has absorbed the anxiety facing people in human elections. People are getting worked up projecting all the human stuff,” she added.

The contest’s creator Stephen Calabria said, “Frankly, I had always envisioned this as a good faith and good-humored way to get shelter dogs adopted and to use this as a platform for good.”

He added, “If I never hear the word crypto again, it will be a blessing.”

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