Multi-Accounting Explained: What It Is and Why It’s Controversial
Multi-Accounting in Crypto: What You Must Know
Warning Multi-accounting is a phenomenon that continues to impact - and to some degree poison - the effectiveness of many crypto services. From the perspective of airdrop hunters or staking farmers, the ability to pursue several accounts at once is a resource that somehow needs to be solved.
Definition of Multi-Accounting
Multi-accounting is a practice of creation and management of multiple accounts by a single person or combined group of users, often to abuse rewards schemes, voting regimes, or the native currency of a platform.
In the crypto world, this process takes place quite often in the platform using services that reward the individual behavior of a user, like:
- Airdrops and giveaways of tokens
- Referral programs
- Yield farming operations in DeFi
- Pseudo-decentralized voting and DAO platforms
This Practice is Controversial
Though not always illegal or outright banned, multi-accounting destroys fairness, exhausts collective resources, and manipulates results, which is why so many crypto platforms are equipped with detection schemes or anti-Sybil.
Building Multi-Account Farms
Behind keyboards, the majority of these operations are nothing less than full-fledged farming schemes per se. A summary of a common multi-accounting system would look something like this:
| Device | Function | Approx Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Machines (VMs) or Emulators | Run multiple apps or browsers with wallets in parallel | $5–$100 / month |
| Residential/Datacenter proxies | Mask IPs for individual accounts | $1–$5 / account / month |
| Fingerprint Spoofers | Alter device/browser data for account use | $50–$200 license |
| SIMs or Virtual Numbers | Phone verification for active account | $0.5–$3 per unit |
Software for Mass Account Management
Multi-account illegitimate players often rely on a bag of tricks, a pack of tools that help them manage hundreds and sometimes thousands of identities:
- AntiDetect Browsers: like ADSPower, Dolphin{Anty}, or GoLogin
- Proxy Management Software: for obfuscating or granting unique proxies
- Task Automation: via scripts and bots that execute repetitive operations
Note: Using the software listed above violates the TOS of most crypto projects and platforms. Participating in such activities may lead to bans, blacklisting of accounts, or even a legal corridor.
Related Article
If you care about the effect of hosting on bot-driven operations, read our article on What is VPS Hosting and Why You Might Need It.
Real-World Use Cases and Exploits
Multi-accounting has permeated almost all aspects of the crypto space. Be it farming airdrops or manipulating governance votes, account farms now constitute a whole other micro-economy — replete with its own set of tools, strategies, and even black-market services.
Airdrop Farming at Scale
One of the most ubiquitous use cases remains airdrop farming — the mass registration of wallets and subsequent interaction with disparate projects purely to maximize token rewards when the proverbial chickens come home to roost. With each account executing tasks such as bridging assets, following social media accounts, or swapping tokens, rewards stack exponentially.
📌 Case in Point: Arbitrum Airdrop
Some individuals reportedly created hundreds of wallets using proxies and automation tools just to simulate on-chain activity on Arbitrum’s network. Despite the presence of filters for such detection, most succeeded — garnering thousands of dollars worth of tokens spread across multiple accounts.
Manipulating Governance and Votes
Projects that leverage any on-chain governance structure are susceptible as well. With enough accounts, a single entity could sway the votes, name malicious proposals, or block community initiatives.
- Token-based DAOs are an easy target, especially without Sybil resistance measures. - Reputation-based measures are easy to compromise through artificial contribution signals.
Farming for Present (Testnets and Betas)
A handful of projects reward users for testing features before the actual launch — whether that involves running nodes, minting test NFTs, or staking on testnets. Multi-accounters take advantage of these systems by automating execution across multiple accounts, upping their chances of reaping rewards when the project officially launches.
⚠ Ethical Disclaimer: Farming on a testnet per se is not illegal, but farming dishonestly harms data quality and real community members. Many projects are aware of this abuse and are taking steps to mitigate it.
Dodging Detection
As projects grow smarter, so do the multi-accounters. Here are a few techniques that are primed for exploitation:
- IP Rotation: Residential or mobile proxies to simulate unique users.
- Device Fingerprint Spoofing: Anything i.e., Canvas, audio, languages, etc.
- Geolocation Manipulation: VPNs and GPS spoofers to mask user origin.
- Simulated Behavior: Variance in time delays, clicks, and mouse movements.
Antidetect browsers and bot platforms allow an entire farm to behave like natural users — making detection more or less impossible for all but the most advanced systems.
Related Article
If you’ve ever wondered how people automate their workflows in crypto, check out our piece on How to Automate Your Daily Tasks with These Powerful Tools.
Inside a Crypto Multi-Account Farm
To appreciate how serious this trend has got, let's dissect what an everyday multi-account "farm" looks like. One dude on some buttons on several Metamask wallets has evolved into a semi-professional routine involving infrastructure, automation, and scalable operations.
🏗️ Average multi-accounting setup
- 50–500 wallets (on Metamask, Rabby, Trust Wallet)
- Residential proxies/4G modems with rolling IPs
- Antidetect browsers (Multilogin, Dolphin, Incognition, etc.)
- Scripts/bots interacting with contracts/UI
- Task planners watching wallet interactions and airdrop phases
Must-have tools & materials
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Wallet generators | Metamask CLI, web3.py scripts |
| Proxies | SOCKS5, 4G mobile proxies (ProxySeller, Airproxy, etc.) |
| Antidetect software | Incognition, Gologin, Dolphin{Anty} |
| Automation | Selenium, Puppeteer, AutoHotKey |
| VPNs & GPS Spoofers | Mullvad, Surfshark, Xlocation (Android) |
All of it designed to scale — often by teams or individuals who resell accounts/farm rewards on commission basis. And yes, some nutjobs even hire AI bots to chit-chat on Discord or fake interactions on X.
The ethical question
Whereas some flex "just optimizing the reward potential," others consider it blatant exploitation. Here's why multi-accounting stands in a controversial grey area:
- It dishonors fair-play values in community-driven projects
- It manipulates project data and compromises long-term sustainability
- Projects lose trust in their real users and retrench behind closed doors
- Detection efforts waste team resources and throttle development
🧠 Insight: Many protocols now resort to Sybil filters, zero-knowledge proofs, and human verification (like ZKLogin or Galxe Passport) to spot real users — and centralize those abusing it.
Community vs. farmers: is there a middle ground?
Some protocols are toying with tiered reward models, where the community's early engagement, NFT ownership, or contribution quality determines airdrop size — not wallet quantity. Others explore on-chain identity and soulbound tokens to analyze behavior over time.
But the cat-and-mouse game between farmers and filters rages on. And until more resilient identity layers hit the mainstream, multi-accounting remains both a strategy and a risk.
Related article
Take a look at our deep dive into Beginner’s Guide to Crypto Airdrops and How to Earn Free Tokens for a taste of next-gen solutions.
