Despite everyone already knowing the ratings are a joke...
Just a cursory inspection shows that 'Weiss' has already been prosecuted for fraudulent, misleading statements, as well as engaging in insider pump & dumps though their listings:
https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2009/34-60125.pdf
and more with the SEC
https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2006/ia-2525.pdf
"The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against a registered investment adviser and its owner for allegedly engaging in self-dealing and failing to disclose material facts to clients regarding conflicts of interest, use of investor funds, and the risks of the investments they recommended."
the SEC alleges that Family Endowment Partners LP and its owner, Lee Dana Weiss, of Newton, Massachusetts, urged their clients to invest more than $40 million in illiquid securities issued by several related companies without disclosing that Weiss had an ownership interest in the parent company of these entities and received payments from these entities.
In the latter docket, we discover that Weiss also has a history of simply displaying 'ratings' based on random employee 'picks', to wit, employees holding absolutely zero experience in the markets they claim to 'rate', whilst misrepresenting themselves as 'experts'.
"In reality, Edelson was not actually involved in selecting the specific recommendations during a portion of the relevant time period. The recommended trades were selected without Edelson’s knowledge by other Weiss Research employees with little or no specific experience in the particular markets at issue."
"Weiss Research, in advertisements and other materials drafted by Martin Weiss and Edelson, made claims about the profitability and past performance of its premium service publications that were inconsistent with the premium services’ overall performance; and made false statements that mischaracterized Edelson’s involvement in selecting the recommended investments. "
TLDR: Weiss ratings is a long standing pump & dump operation who makes propitious picks based largely on which securities the owners currently hold, and who, prima facia, had a few years of self-proclaimed legitimacy, yet were later exposed as shilling their own picks to pump their stocks.
Edit2: Basically....ignore it. It's garbage. So if your coin got rated great, sorry but the rating is useless. If your coin got rated bad, who cares...the rating is useless.
Edit3: Let's not forget that crypto is unregulated. These guys have a history of shilling for shit they have with STOCKS. There is no doubt they hold several coins. And you'd never know about it. So take everything they say and flush it.
Edit4: Just because I should always say it...as you can see by my tag...I'm a Litecoin fan. And Litecoin got an above average rating. And I will still be the first to say that these ratings are a scam/sham/corporate shill program and should be flushed down the gutter
Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:
https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2006/ia-2525.pdf
Awesome post, thank you. :)