Research • October 24, 2018, 3:41PM EDT
UPDATED: October 24, 2018, 3:59PM EDT

Researchers study over 500 cryptocurrency pump and dump schemes

Read the non-AMP story on Theblock.co
The Block

A group of researchers from major universities released a paper examining 500 crypto-related pump and dump (P&D) schemes. Examining data from May 15, 2017 to August 26, 2018, researchers found 3,400+ P&D announcements from 80 active Telegram channels. Of these announcements 1,747 were unique. The researchers restricted their attention to 500 distinct P&D schemes involving 230+ tokens. From this sample size the data revealed that:

  • In 229 P&Ds, pump groups specified the returns they target, with the averagereturn being 212%.
  • On average, approximately two tokens are pumped per day and the likelihood that a token will be pumped on any given day is 0.3%.
  • In the first 70 seconds after the start of a P&D, the price of a token increased by 25% on average and trading volume increased 148 times.

(Source: SSRN)