When you hear about a new coin shooting up 500% in hours, it’s almost always a crypto pump and dump, a manipulative scheme where insiders artificially inflate a token’s price then sell off, leaving others with worthless assets. Also known as pump and dump, this isn’t trading—it’s theft dressed up as opportunity.
These schemes rely on three things: hype, speed, and silence. A small group buys a low-market-cap token, then floods social media with fake testimonials, Telegram groups, and influencer posts. New buyers rush in, thinking they’ve found the next Bitcoin. But when the price peaks, the insiders cash out—and the price collapses faster than it rose. The token often disappears from exchanges, the website goes dark, and the team vanishes. This isn’t speculation. It’s fraud. And it’s happening right now with every fake airdrop, every "1000x gem," every project that promises riches with no code, no team, and no real use case. Look at LNR Lunar Crystal NFT airdrop, a project that vanished without delivering any NFTs to token holders, or CHY airdrop by Concern Poverty Chain, a token marketed as charity but worth exactly $0 with zero trading volume. These aren’t exceptions. They’re the rule.
What makes these scams so dangerous is how they mimic real opportunities. Legit airdrops like FLUX Protocol on CoinMarketCap, a verified distribution of tokens through a trusted platform have clear rules, verifiable teams, and public smart contracts. Pump and dumps have none of that. They rely on urgency: "Only 100 spots left!" "Buy now before it’s too late!" They avoid transparency. They never show audits. They never answer questions. And they always disappear after the pump. Even platforms like Superp Crypto Exchange, which offers extreme leverage for meme traders, can become feeding grounds for these schemes if you’re not careful. High leverage doesn’t make a bad token good—it just makes losses bigger.
You’ll see these scams everywhere: in crypto Twitter threads, in obscure Telegram channels, in CoinMarketCap airdrops with no vetting. They target people who are new, hopeful, or desperate. But the pattern never changes. If a token has no trading volume, no team, no roadmap, and no reason to exist—don’t buy it. If someone tells you it’s "the next big thing" with no proof—walk away. Real crypto growth comes from utility, adoption, and time—not viral hype. The posts below show you exactly how these scams unfold: from fake NFT drops in BSC to collapsed tokens like Cruze and Treecle, from inflated TVL numbers to outright theft by state-backed hackers. You won’t find a single success story here. Only lessons. And if you learn them, you’ll never be part of the next dump.
Market cap manipulation in cryptocurrency uses pump-and-dump schemes, wash trading, and spoofing to trick investors. Learn how these scams work and how to protect your investments from artificial price inflation.
