Origin Dictionary / OD-048
Pump and Dump
The invitation to buy may be someone else's plan to sell.
01Dictionary Meaning
A pump and dump is a manipulation scheme that inflates an asset's price through misleading promotion or coordinated activity so organizers can sell into the demand.
02What People Think
"This group is helping everyone get in early."
03What’s Underneath
Organizers can accumulate before the public excitement begins. Messages create urgency, price movement attracts attention, and new buyers supply a market for earlier holders to exit.
The rising price becomes part of the sales pitch: apparent proof that the claim was right. Once selling overwhelms demand, later buyers may face a sharp fall or a difficult exit.
A price surge alone does not establish manipulation. The defining mechanism is the coordinated or deceptive effort to create demand for an insider's sale.
04The Game
Who owned the asset before the promotion, what claims are being used to attract buyers, and who benefits from immediate action?
05One Line
In a pump and dump, the crowd's entrance is the organizer's exit.
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