Chainalysis Reports Surge in Crypto Pump and Dump Schemes in 2023

Over half of new Ethereum tokens were involved in potential pump and dump activities, with average profits per scheme at $2,600.

Chainalysis identified over 90,000 potential pump and dump schemes involving Ethereum ERC-20 tokens in 2023, netting scammers $241.6 million in total.
54% of new Ethereum tokens showed patterns indicative of pump and dump schemes, but they accounted for only 1.3% of total DEX trading volume.
A single wallet was found to orchestrate 81 pump and dump schemes, grossing $830,000 in profit.
Market manipulators often used wash trading to artificially boost a token's trading volume before pulling liquidity.
Chainalysis emphasizes the importance of on-chain data for identifying potential pump and dump schemes, urging investors to exercise due diligence.