At some point, McAfee stated that he had participated in the creation of an unhackable hardware Bitcoin wallet, Bifti. According to him, the wallet was absolutely invulnerable to any kind of hacker attack. The wallet turned out to be not so reliable: it was hacked a week later. After that, it was hacked the second time, and this time users not only hacked the device but also run DOOM, the iconic video game, on it.

Despite all the wrong predictions and crazy declarations, McAfee remains the most important crypto influencer even now, according to the survey performed by blockchain-focused research company Clovr. His closest competitors are Vitalik Buterin and Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin:

McAfee has become so widely recognized and popular in the crypto world for a variety of reasons.

First of all, by the beginning of the widespread cryptocurrency movement of 2017, he’s already had an enormous Twitter fan-base and a self-proclaimed status of a man who “fucking invented cybersecurity”, thanks to his past of a high-profile cybersecurity businessman. Together with his rebellious media image and the well-known wild lifestyle, it has made McAfee an ideal symbol for the cryptocurrency movement: a technical guru who rises against the world’s financial system and guards the foundation of the new world’s freedom.

McAfee’s claims and predictions have actually had an enormous effect on cryptocurrency prices. It seems like a single McAfee’s tweet about any no-name altcoin could skyrocket its price from almost zero right to the moon, making its holders rich all of a sudden. Apparently, it’s been McAfee’s primary motivation: to get money for the promotion of different altcoins.

It’s interesting that pumping the cryptocurrency prices through media buzz was not McAfee’s first experience with financial markets. Earlier, he participated in the promotion of a penny-stock company called MGT Capital Investments. McAfee’s actions had led company shares to climb more than eightfold in 2016. After the hype had subsided, the company stocks’ prices fell back to almost zero and the company was announced to be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. So McAfee had already had a solid experience by the beginning of cryptocurrency hype.

All of these McAfee’s crazy media marketing campaigns were possibly a good thing for the promoted coins’ developers and holders, but not for the industry itself.

As I mentioned earlier, the hype which accompanied the cryptocurrency industry in 2017–2018 was mostly a negative phenomenon for the development and adoption of blockchain technology and digital funds.

While cryptocurrency prices skyrocketed to the moon, the technology behind it couldn’t maintain the same rates of growth in its development and adoption. Moreover, the existing market bubble had managed to create a bad image for the cryptocurrency field, which turned over many serious investors and slowed down cryptocurrency adoption by the world’s governments. Together with that, the hype which followed crypto in 2017–2018 has led to the crypto field a lot of scammers, creating even more damage for cryptocurrency public image.

I want to believe that further development of cryptocurrency field will rely on real value and not on hype and populist statements. Thankfully, there are many factors pointing that this will be the case.