University researchers identified over 4,800 pump and dump schemes involving crypto over a six month period

A group of university researchers published a study examining pump and dump (P&D) signals from Telegram and Discord channels. According to the study, the researchers were able to identify 3,767 different pump signals advertised on Telegram and 1,051 different pump signals advertised on Discord over a six-month period from mid-January 2018 to early July 2018. Furthermore, to make their analysis more substantial, the researchers collected pricing data on nearly 2,000 coins from CoinMarketCap — generating over 316 million data points in the process. Here is what they found:

• A coin's rank — defined as market cap and volume — is the most important factor in determining how profitable a P&D is.
• An obscure coin with low volume is more profitable than pumping a highly liquid and established coin
  • P&Ds, on Telegram, for a top 75 and top 500 coin, resulted in a median price increase of 4.8% and 19%, respectively
  • P&Ds, on Discord, for a top 75 and top 500 coin, resulted in a median price increase of 3.5% and 23%, respectively
• 10% of P&Ds on Telegram increased the price of a coin by more than 18% in five minutes.
• 10% of P&D on Discord increased the price of a coin by more than 12% in five minutes.
• There were 6 P&Ds of bitcoin on Discord and 76 on Telegram. These P&Ds accounted for only 1.7% of all P&Ds examined by the researchers.