One of the main reasons why large investors are not rushing into the cryptocurrency industry, and regulatorswatching her under the microscope, aremarket manipulation. The people - pamps and dumps. What it is? Artificially inflating the value of an asset and attracting inexperienced traders and investors to buy it in order to further collapse the price. Targeted dumps are performed by project founders or owners of a large share of tokens, throwing them to the market and dropping the cost. Such manipulations, depending on the popularity of the asset and the scale of the planned fraud, can bring millions of dollars in profit to the organizers.
Next, we will consider the most noticeable pumps and dumps of 2019, among which there are tokens and cryptocurrencies whose rise and fall occurred for unknown and unknown reasons.
Pump Mindol
The most inexplicable success in 2019 was achieved by the MIN token, from the Japanese Mindol project.
An ERC20 token issued on Ethereum,is used within the Mindol ecosystem for voting and donations to idols who release and promote Japanese subculture content around the world: anime, games, comics, music, and more. The token can also be used not only within the ecosystem, but also in partner stores. The project was created in April 2018 by the Japanese Fumihiro Fukuhara, who was completely unknown to the cryptocurrency community, both before and after the launch of the project. No less interesting is the fact that nothing is known about the development plans or any high-profile cooperation of the project with anyone. However, in just one month, Mindol broke into the TOP-20 cryptocurrencies, displacing such giants as Huobi Token, NEO and IOTA, reaching 16th place with a capitalization of $ 662 million.
Since launch in 2018, more than 1.5 yearsago, MIN did not stand out from other ICO tokens and gradually dropped in price from $1.20 to $0.17. Starting from November 5, being at the $0.31 mark, MIN starts “to the moon” and in just 1.5 months reaches the $5.27 mark.
What is the reason for such growth? Nobody from the cryptocurrency industrycommunity is unknown. The Coinmarketcap administration did not hide its surprise either and despite the current market capitalization of $528 million, sent MIN to 202 place in the rating, instead of 21. Out of sight.
Dump ChainLink
In July 2019, the leadership of the decentralized ChainLink oracle service was suspected of liquidating their own tokens without any warning to the crypto community and token holders.
According to some LINK holders, dumpstarted after an official tweet about recruiting new staff. A total of 15 transactions were performed with 700,000 tokens each, which amounts to a total of 9.8 million LINK or 35 million in dollar terms at the exchange rate at the time of the drain.
According to TrustNodes, using theseThe most tokens that were sold through the Binance cryptocurrency exchange was an attempt to increase trading volumes and provoke the members of the FOMO crypto community. After analyzing the data, TrustNodes observers determined that LINK trades were launched at the end of June, because with a capitalization of $ 1.4 billion, trading volumes amounted to $ 863 million, which is rather difficult to imagine in the case of a not-so-popular asset.
Recall that during the ICO projectChainLink managed to sell 350 million tokens, thanks to which $ 32 million of investments were attracted, the remaining 650 million LINK tokens were reserved by the project for financing in the future. Over the past six months, the project capitalization has decreased by $ 800 million.
Pump and dump BLOCKv
On November 15th, for no reason at all, the costVEE token, which belongs to the BLOCKv project, grew by 7500% in just 1 hour from $0.0012 to $0.14. Then, the price rushed down to the previous values before the pump. Thus, a real Pump&Dump of the coin occurred.
Altcoin trading volumes increased sharply by18800% - up to 66 thousand dollars, and the total capitalization reached 244 million dollars, according to this indicator, the asset took 33rd place in the list of the largest cryptocurrencies.
99.8% of the VEE token trading volume falls on the ChainX cryptocurrency exchange, on which the manipulation occurred.
BLOCKv project plans to conquer the marketvirtual and augmented reality. The main focus of the development is on the creation and management of digital assets, licensing content and transferring them to the blockchain basis. We hope that the capture of the market will occur without the help of such manipulations.
Pump and dump Matic Network
On the morning of December 10, 2019, for unknown reasonsFor some reason, the MATIC token of the Matic Network project, which is developing a layer 2 scaling solution and uses off-chain computing outside the Ethereum mainnet, lost about 70% of its value in just 3 hours.
2 weeks before the fall, the token demonstratedsteady growth from $ 0.014 to $ 0.04. The reasons for the growth are unknown. Having reached a peak on December 10, the price fell to $ 0.017, after which it continued to decline and is currently at the level of $ 0.014.
Matic Network development team abandonedThere are no comments on this matter, but Sandip Neilwal, co-founder and project manager, said that the team did not give up work on the project and has nothing to do with the collapse of the token. Soon, the founder of the Validity platform, Samuel Gosling, after analyzing the transactions, convicted the Matic Network that they had recently transferred almost 1.5 billion MATIC or $ 22.5 million in monetary terms to Binance, where they were later liquidated. ViewBase agency did say that the amount of transfers in the last 30 days before the collapse was much more than 1.5 billion tokens. Later, Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, defended the Matic Network, claiming they had nothing to do with pump and dump, but assured investors that the exchange would investigate possible fraud.
Monacoin Pump</p>
Monacoin - a decentralized cryptocurrency,which appeared as a result of the Litecoin fork in 2014, in fact - it is more adapted to the means of payment Litecoin. The coin is very popular in Japan, where it can be paid even in stores. 90% of MONA holders are residents of the land of the rising sun.
From May 23 to June 5, the MONA cryptocurrencyrose in price by 348%, from $ 1 to $ 3.48. What has been associated with such a fantastic growth in such a short period of time remains unknown. It is worth mentioning here that it is not so easy to inflate the price of a coin that has existed since 2014 and has a market capitalization of $ 65 million.
Cryptocurrency holders tried to find out the reasonsgrowth in the project’s social networks, but no one has ever found a clear explanation. On the other hand, it is unlikely that MONA users were very upset, since everyone had enough time to earn on this pump - the coin grew 2 weeks.
Pampas ABBC Coin
ABBC Coin is a cryptocurrency issued byby ABBC Foundation, a blockchain solutions provider that targets the financial and retail sectors, for the purpose of settlements and use as a means of payment, as well as for the instant exchange of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin, Qtum, Bitcoin Cash and XRP. With the development of the second generation Mainnet, the ABBC blockchain is capable of processing up to 5,000 transactions per second.
It’s a good and promising project,designed for development in the MENA region, however, ABBC Coin quite often served as tools for pumps whose origin is unknown.
Between February 24 and March 10, ABBC Coin grewalmost 500%, from $ 0.1 to $ 0.49. The reason for the growth is unknown, although according to the community this is due to the increased interest in the project from investors in the region. At the same time, more substantial and positive news about the settlement in the trademark dispute with the Alibaba Group from April 8 to 10 caused the coin to grow only 2 times.
From May 1 to June 28, 2019, ABBC Cointwice increased in price by almost 100% in a short period of time and fell in the same way. That is, in this case we are talking about systematic manipulations similar to each other like two peas in a pod.
The latest increase, for unknown reasons, occurred from September 15 to 23 and amounted to more than 250%. The price increased from $0.09 to $0.24 in a week.
Such strong rises of the coin against the backdrop of a globally declining market look very strange, especially considering the similarities between these manipulations.
ShineChain Pump and Dump
ShineChain is an ERC20 token issued byEthereum in January 2018. According to the founders, ShineChain is a global mutual insurance community based on blockchain technology. There is no more extensive and clear information about the project, but this did not prevent it from growing in price 40 times, from $0.001 to $0.04 between March 23 and April 12, after which it fell no less monumentally to $0.008. Today, the token is worth only $0.0005 or practically nothing.
There is nothing about the reasons for this token behavior.unknown, as well as about the project team, its plans, prospects and other important events. As a result, one can only draw one conclusion - it was a targeted Pump&Dump.
Pump and dump MMOCoin
MMOCoin is a cryptocurrency developed bycommunity of MMOPro gamers. MMOCoin operates on the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm and has a multi-tiered reward system for staking coins, which ensures the security of the network. With MMOCoin, gamers can buy, sell and trade various digital goods and services on the MMOPro marketplace.
Apparently the project is used not only forunification of the gaming community, but also for profit by manipulating the price of cryptocurrency. In 2019 alone, MMOCoin twice grew for several hours by 100% or more, which was not particularly noticeable against the background of the average cost of the coin - $ 0.001. However, at a certain point in time, namely November 16, the big MMOCoin holders got the idea to play big. From November 16 to November 22, the coin flew up at the speed of light and grew (!) 1200 times, stopping at around $ 1.20. Over the next few days, the coin came down from heaven to earth at no less rapid rates and today is trading at the rate of $ 0.005.
Pump CustomContractNetwork
CustomContractNetwork is a company thatprovides smart contract development and security audit services for blockchain companies and individuals. Apparently, the company decided to issue its own CCN token so that clients could pay the company in tokens, receiving a discount for services rendered. However, the second option, issuing a token in order to make a good pump and dump, looks much more viable.
In the period from March 22 to 29, the cost of the CCN token increased by 1500%, after which it began to gradually decline and by the end of 2019 costs $ 0.
Pump Bytom
Between October 25 and 26, 2019, in just one day, the BTM token of the Bytum project, for reasons unknown to anyone, grew by 360% from $0.05 to $0.18.
At a certain point in time, the Bytum project wasrelatively popular and successful, and its token cost more than $ 1 per coin, however, after the crypto winter, Bytum could not restore its former power, however, like 99% of other projects.
Bytom project created in early 2017Blockchain (BTM) was launched to develop a protocol that could label assets from the physical world and represent them in the digital world on a decentralized network. The goal of the project is to help enterprises and individuals register and exchange assets, such as securities, bonds, documents and various types of information using blockchain technology. But as a result, the pump is 360% and the lack of prospects for development.
The 5 largest pumps and dumps of 2019, the reason for the appearance of which is known or has been clarified by the participants of the crypto community.
</strong>
Dump Ripple
Controversy over the third largest by market capitalizationcryptocurrencies never stop. Since its foundation, Ripple has been accused of all the deadly sins of the cryptocurrency world: hype, lack of real application, centralization, and the gradual drain of tokens belonging to the company.
The XRP token tops the list of popular coins,which showed the worst results in 2019. At the time of writing, XRP is at $ 0.21, which is close to its historical low of 2017. No matter how positively the market behaves during the year, ripple basically ignored it, but at the time of the market crash, the token actively “supported” its “comrades-in-arms” and fell along with them.
The public is sure a similar dump of currencyIt is the fault of the founders of Ripple Labs, which, through the systematic release of a huge number of coins on the market, reduce its value. Of the issued 100 billion XRP, 65% is controlled by the company. This state of affairs does not suit investors and the crypto community, and a collective petition was specifically signed on this subject, demanding the end of this practice. Note that we are not talking about 1 billion tokens that the company thawes monthly and releases to the market, but about the personal savings of the founders.
When it became impossible to hush up the problem, company representatives confirmed the fact of periodic sale of their own XRP tokens.
Bittorrent BTT Pump
BTT is the token of the legendary BitTorrent project,which was bought by Justin Sun's TRON company. The BTT token operates on the TRON network, on the TRN-10 algorithm, and is used for settlements between users of the BitTorrent network.
BTT is designed to solve the problem of decliningthe number of seeds on the network. With the help of the token, it is planned to reward the distributors, who in the future will be able to either sell BTT on the exchange or spend it on the purchase of content. Despite the black line in the life of the project, the BitTorrent protocol covers traffic of 200 million people and this fact became fundamental for Justin Sun and his colleagues, who bought BitTorrent for $ 127 million. Against the background of such positive news for the project, the BTT rate grew by 62% immediately after the transaction.
Dump ATOM
The Cosmos project, which isa decentralized network of independent and parallel blockchains that allows cryptocurrencies to interact with each other while remaining independent, fell victim to an impatient community of token holders. In April 2019, when the ATOM token was listed on the exchange, the price was about $9, but almost immediately fell by 3 times as a result of sell-offs by community members who had been waiting for ATOM to appear on the exchange since 2017.
It is worth noting that such sales have already becomethe traditional behavior of token holders who invested in a particular token with the aim of selling it instantly during listing on a cryptocurrency exchange. The ATOM token was no exception and on the very first day of its exchange life fell from $ 8.9 to $ 3.
The successes and pampas of the Enjin project
Enjin is based on the Ethereum blockchaininfrastructure for creating smart contracts, decentralized applications, trading in-game items and assets using the Enjin Coin token of the ERC1155 standard.
Unlike most projects inThe cryptocurrency industry in 2019, the Enjin project has been successfully developing and, according to various sources, already has an audience of over 18 million people, as well as partnerships with technology giants like Microsoft and Samsung, thanks to which its token has grown twice a year this year on positive news.
The first pump occurred on March 11, 2019, after the ENJ token was lit on an advertisement for Samsung's new flagship. The price of the token soared by 370%, from $ 0.10 to $ 0.37, during the day.
The second pump occurred between December 4 and 6,when Enjin Coin grew by 80%, from $ 0.058 to $ 0.107, and coin trading volumes increased by 55%, reaching $ 44.6 million. The token price began to rise amid a announcement of a partnership with Microsoft, in collaboration with which the Azure Heroes project was created. Members will receive rewards for publishing content and blogging.
CROP Pump Crypto.com
CRO is a token of the Crypto ecosystem.com, which enables instant transfers of cryptocurrencies and tokens via a mobile application linked to a bank card, which the project issues for its clients in partnership with VISA.
In March 2019, as a result of the launch of the systemPay on the platform, there was a sharp jump in the cost of the CRO token, which rose by 380%, from $ 0.0130 to $ 0.0625. After this pump, the company's capitalization increased to $ 200 million, which allowed it to enter the list of TOP-30 cryptocurrencies. Not every project, token or coin can boast of such results on the market, especially since more often than not, the market simply ignores positive news and does not take into account fundamental factors. Interestingly, this only works with the coins that you hold in your portfolio, but as soon as you sold them, they fly away to the moon.
Subscribe to our telegram channel “Crypto Chief”, there are even more interesting articles, forecasts and market analytics!
Read this:
The launch of the Telegram Open Network project is the most anticipated event of 2019
Malaysian authorities adopt ICO law in first quarter of 2019
Copy-paste | BELWEST launched its ICO and sells its tokens for euros and rubles
Top 6 Airdrop in December 2019, free token distribution
Gram release may be delayed for half a year
Ghost Monero and the bolt that I put on risk management: the latest memes in 2019