What Are We Really Seeing—Public Opinion, Foolish Opinion, or “Fishing” Opinion?

Over the past few days, I’ve been wondering: could the recent wave of public-opinion battles around exchanges actually have been orchestrated by a team from outside the Chinese (APAC) community?

Often, it’s not because you did something wrong. On the contrary, it’s because you did many things right that you end up being accused of “possessing a treasure and thus being guilty.” Or perhaps you did many things right, but suddenly made n mistakes, and people decide you are no longer the same person. Have you ever experienced the feeling of doing a hundred good deeds, only to have your reputation destroyed by a single mistake?

Introduction

In Peter Thiel’s book Zero to One, there is a view that once a business reaches a $1 billion valuation, it will inevitably become involved in politics.

The implicit meaning is that when the stakes become large enough, you will always need to seek a “protective umbrella.” Put bluntly, you must pay protection money.

This is even more true in the crypto industry. Every exchange is essentially a money-printing machine, which makes outsiders extremely envious.

A public-opinion war is an important component of business competition, and even more so an extension of political lobbying.

So-called “black PR” in the business world aims to manipulate information flows and the public opinion arena in order to:

  • damage competitors’ brand reputations

  • undermine market expectations for their core products

  • interfere with their major business decisions (such as fundraising, IPO listings, or annual product launches)

By destroying the social trust foundation of an opponent, attackers can seize abnormal market share or pressure the targeted company into compromise—ultimately extracting excess economic benefits.

Reading Guide

  • Chapters 1–3: Theoretical foundations explaining why “black PR” requires so many participants.

  • Chapter 4: Examines whether Binance is currently under attack from black PR.

  • Chapters 5–6: Attempts to speculate on who might be behind it.

1. The Theoretical and Psychological Foundations of “Black PR”

The reason black PR can repeatedly tear apart the reputation defenses of mature companies and trigger massive waves of public opinion is that it weaponizes weaknesses in human group psychology and information asymmetry.

Common tactics such as astroturfing armies (“water armies”) and opinion dominance rely on three classic psychological principles.

1. The Digital Version of The Crowd: Intelligence Declines in Groups

In Gustave Le Bon’s The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, he explains that once individuals form a crowd, they display completely different psychological traits.

Deindividuation

When people gather in large numbers, individuals feel an “irresistible power.” This sense of power frees them from moral constraints and responsibility.

Black PR exploits this by encouraging:

  • online abuse

  • doxxing

  • moral judgment mobs

Intellectual Degradation

Regardless of how rational or elite individuals are in real life, once absorbed into a crowd, their intelligence often drops dramatically, and they become slaves to instinct and emotion.

Black PR messaging avoids complex reasoning and instead uses short, provocative slogans, such as:

  • “the ugly face of capitalists”

  • “the real culprit of 1011”

These slogans appeal directly to the crowd’s primal instincts.

2. Reverse Manipulation of the Agenda-Setting Function

The agenda-setting theory suggests that media may not control how people think, but it strongly influences what people think about.

Black PR actors exploit this by flooding platforms with massive volumes of content to force a negative narrative agendainto public view.

This agenda is often framed as a major issue concerning:

  • public safety

  • consumer rights

  • business ethics

Once implanted, public attention becomes locked within this negative framework—even if the company later produces evidence proving the allegations false. By then, public cognitive energy has already been exhausted by suspicion, verification, and debate.

3. The “Spiral of Silence” and Manufactured False Consensus

The Spiral of Silence theory, proposed in 1972, suggests that people fear social isolation and therefore align themselves with what appears to be the dominant opinion.

When black PR groups create hundreds or thousands of accounts posting malicious comments simultaneously, they manufacture the illusion of overwhelming public consensus.

Imagine logging onto a platform and immediately being surrounded by a flood of accusations, insults, and alleged “evidence.”

Under such hostile pressure, individuals who hold neutral views—or who might defend the company—often remain silent to avoid:

  • moral condemnation

  • online harassment

  • social isolation

Thus the illusion of consensus grows stronger.

This is why one of the core tactics of black PR is controlling both the volume and frequency of public opinion output.

When people gather in groups, intelligence decreases. And once intelligence drops, individuals become more susceptible to manipulation—and less willing to express dissenting views.

2. Strategic Goals and Evolution Model of Black PR

From the theoretical discussion above, it is clear that black PR operations represent a carefully engineered form of social manipulation.

After years of evolution, the process has become a structured, multi-node industrial workflow, typically progressing through five stages:

Stage 1: Intelligence Gathering and Narrative Design

Investigate the target company’s product flaws, executive statements, or historical controversies.

If no real issues exist, attackers may fabricate false allegations or distort minor facts.

Stage 2: Matrix Infiltration and Seeding

Anonymous accounts or niche communities release “insider information” or mysterious leaks to test platform algorithms and moderation boundaries.

Stage 3: Influencer Detonation and Agenda Setting

Large influencer accounts amplify the narrative through retweets, comments, and posts—often pushing topics into trending lists.

Stage 4: Bot Swarms and Public Opinion Fermentation

Large numbers of fake accounts swarm the conversation, triggering platform algorithms and creating viral momentum.

Real users then follow the crowd in panic or anger.

Stage 5: Profit Extraction and Silent Exit

Once the target’s reputation is damaged—impacting stock price or business performance—the attackers delete accounts or go silent to avoid forensic tracing.

Because these activities are criminal in nature, teams often rely on covert communication and cryptocurrency payments to avoid detection.

3. Identifying Features of Black PR

The article summarizes several detection indicators that can be used to build an analytical identification framework.

4. Is Binance Currently in the Eye of a Black PR Storm?

4.1 “Zero-Hour Action”

Analysis of negative tweets about Binance on X revealed synchronized posting patterns.

At specific times—often during low liquidity periods such as weekends or late Asian hours—hundreds of accounts post identical content within seconds.

Common keywords include:

  • “Insolvent”

  • “Withdraw”

  • “Run”

Even punctuation and emojis are identical.

This strongly suggests script-driven bot networks designed to fabricate the illusion that “everyone is talking about Binance collapsing.”

4.2 Trojan-Horse Account Strategy

Many accounts follow the same naming pattern:

Chinese surname + “BNB” suffix
Examples: Li_BNB, Zhang_BNB

Their bios claim they are long-time Chinese Binance users, creating a narrative that loyal users are turning against the platform.

Interestingly, many of these accounts were inactive during the real market crash in October 2025 and were even promoting competing projects like Solana or Hyperliquid.

But in late January 2026, they suddenly “woke up,” deleted previous content, and focused exclusively on attacking Binance.

This resembles classic bot-net activation tactics.

4.3 Homogeneous Content Materials

Many circulating screenshots of alleged:

  • internal chats

  • legal notices

  • withdrawal screenshots

appear to be AI-generated.

Across different accounts, the screenshots share identical:

  • resolution

  • cropping ratios

  • timestamps

  • phone battery levels

This indicates they likely come from a centralized propaganda material database.

4.4 Similar Attacker Profiles

An analysis of 92 anti-Binance accounts found that 71 were high-risk bot accounts.

While some tweets may still come from real users or opportunistic influencers seeking attention, the patterns strongly resemble a coordinated black PR campaign.

5. The Industrial Chain Behind Black PR

Modern black PR has evolved into a full underground industry with clear division of labor.

Upstream: Sponsors

Usually competitors or counterparties who secretly fund the campaign.

Midstream: Agencies / PR Firms

Strategists who coordinate KOL resources and design the narrative framework.

Downstream: Execution Layer

Silicon-based bot armies

  • Automated accounts controlled by device farms

  • Used for likes, reposts, and volume

Carbon-based “human bots”

  • Real people recruited via online gig groups

  • Paid to write emotional comments or negative reviews.

6. Investigation: Who Is Behind It?

The most intriguing question remains: who is orchestrating this?

While we cannot identify the major influencers leading the narrative, black PR operations require not only leaders but also large bot supply networks.

Therefore the investigation turned to the supply chain of bot services.

Researchers identified seven SMM platforms offering services such as:

  • custom comments

  • bot engagement

  • cryptocurrency payment options

By testing these services with scripts and controlled purchases, they found that some of the same bot accounts appeared across multiple platforms, suggesting a shared infrastructure.

Further blockchain analysis revealed numerous payments of tens to hundreds of USDT, along with one large 4999 USDT transfer on January 31—exactly when Binance-related narratives peaked on X.

Interestingly, that transfer originated from a Binance hot wallet.

Even more surprisingly, during a similar attack period against OKX, there were also transfers from OKX hot wallets to the same SMM platform.

This raises the possibility that the situation may be more complex than it appears.

Conclusion

The author ultimately chooses not to publish the wallet addresses or share the collected information.

Regardless of who is behind the attacks, the author hopes such meaningless tactics will stop.

Exchanges like Binance and OKX are not perfect, but they remain critical pillars of the crypto industry. They should not be destroyed by coordinated misinformation.

For the Chinese crypto community, establishing itself in global markets is already difficult—especially when Western narratives dominate the industry.

Why should innovative industry narratives always originate in the West and eventually be paid for by the East?

Perhaps it is time to change that order and those rules.

But first, we must set aside our prejudices.


Source: https://x.com/agintender