Pump and Dump
A pump and dump scheme is a form of market manipulation where the price of an asset is artificially inflated through misleading positive statements and coordinated buying, only for the perpetrators to sell their holdings at the peak. This leaves unsuspecting investors with assets that rapidly lose value once the artificial support disappears.
In the digital asset market, these schemes are often orchestrated in private online communities and target low-liquidity tokens. The ease of creating and marketing new tokens makes the market particularly susceptible to these frauds.
Investors can protect themselves by conducting thorough due diligence, being wary of hype-driven social media campaigns, and avoiding assets with low liquidity and unclear utility. Regulators are increasingly pursuing these cases as they represent clear violations of market fairness.