Latest news with #pumpanddump
Coin Geek
05-06-2025
- Business
- Coin Geek
The dangerous game of pump.fun
Homepage > News > Business > The dangerous game of In the fast-moving world of digital currency, platforms emerge at breakneck speed, promising innovation, empowerment, and financial inclusion. But some of these platforms, cloaked in memes and marketed as fun, hide a much darker reality. One of the most talked-about examples today is a token launch platform built on Solana. On the surface, it appears to democratize memecoin creation. In practice, it has become a hyper-efficient machine for pump-and-dump schemes, rewarding a small group of insiders while extracting wealth from impulsive speculators, many of whom are young, unprotected, and unaware of the dangers they face. lets anyone mint a token with minimal effort and trade it immediately through an automated price curve that rises with every new buyer. This encourages early speculation and viral promotion. Once the hype peaks, early buyers dump their holdings for profit, while those who buy late are left holding worthless tokens. It is a cycle that repeats around the clock, with new tokens constantly replacing the old in a never-ending churn of manufactured excitement and predictable collapse. The platform thrives on speed. Tokens can go viral and crash within minutes. There is no time for due diligence, no requirement for developers to offer utility or transparency, and no obligation to protect users. The only goal is momentum. Traders race to spot the next memecoin, often driven by group chats, anonymous tips, or influencer tweets. But this is not trading in the traditional sense. It is gambling, fast, addictive, and unforgiving. What makes especially dangerous is its appeal to young people. Crypto-savvy teens and college students, already immersed in meme culture and digital assets, are easily drawn to the platform's promise of quick gains and viral stardom. There are no age gates, no educational prompts, and no warnings about the risks involved. In many cases, users also lack awareness that they are engaging in a high-stakes financial game with mechanics similar to online casinos. The psychological toll is significant. The structure of plays directly into patterns of compulsive behavior. The excitement of small wins followed by steep losses reinforces a loop that can lead to real harm. Users report staying up through the night glued to charts, chasing losses with fresh deposits, and sinking deeper into financial and emotional distress. These behaviors mirror clinical signs of gambling addiction, and yet they are developing inside a platform that presents itself as a harmless playground. And while everyday users suffer, others thrive. A small group of insiders, fast-moving traders, token creators, and online influencers profit handsomely. Some users create dozens of tokens a day, front-running interest with bots or viral marketing tactics. Influencers with large followings can drive liquidity into a coin they launched minutes before, cashing out while their followers still buy in. Meanwhile, the platform earns a fee from every transaction, regardless of the outcome. The incentives are aligned not with community, innovation, or education, but with volume and churn. reflects a broader tension in crypto, the gap between permissionless innovation and ethical responsibility. The platform does not break laws, at least not in the traditional sense. But it is building an ecosystem that mimics the worst aspects of unregulated gambling and then marketing it as empowerment. Crypto can be a tool for good. It can offer new ownership models, financial inclusion, and decentralized governance. But platforms like this question what kind of future we are building and for whom. It is time for the crypto community to speak honestly about what is happening here. Regulation may eventually catch up, but the damage is real. If the Web3 space wants to grow into something lasting and respected, it must prioritize integrity over hype and responsibility over rapid growth. is not just a passing trend. It is a symptom of something deeper: a culture willing to accept exploitation as entertainment. That culture must change. Not because regulators say so, but because the people building the future of finance can and should do better. Watch: Reggie Middleton on DeFi, booms/busts & crypto regulation title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""> Memecoin Pump and Dump Solana Tokenization
Coin Geek
04-06-2025
- Business
- Coin Geek
Judge freezes $57 million worth of $LIBRA proceeds
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... A United States judge has ordered Circle to freeze over $57 million worth of USDC—said to be the proceeds of Argentine President Javier Miliei's $LIBRA pump-and-dump—in a court order made Tuesday. It's the latest episode in a sprawling saga that began with the launch of $LIBRA, a token billed as an investment into the Argentine business. The price of the token ran up rapidly after President Milei publicly endorsed it. The token crashed shortly after, causing a political crisis for Milei and leaving countless investors holding the bag. The freezing order is part of a proposed class action lawsuit filed against Kelsier Ventures, the organization apparently behind the token, and Meteora, the platform used to sell it. The lawsuit also names a group of individuals, including Kelsier CEO Hayden Davis and family members Thomas and Gideon Davis, as defendants. As described in the lawsuit: 'The Defendants marketed $LIBRA as an investment in 'Argentine small businesses' when it was nothing of the sort. They sold the token through a platform, Meteora, that enabled them to manipulate the price of their worthless cryptocurrency so that they could pump it up quickly and then pull out investor money before the price inevitably collapsed.' Filings in support of the freeze order detail the $LIBRA scam. It claims that the defendants recruited Milei and other touters to promote the token upon launch, while withholding most of the supply from the public to make the price easier to manipulate. The proposed plaintiff class representative Omar Hurlock said that almost $58 million worth of USDC—the proceeds of the pump and dump—were in Circle wallets controlled by Davis and that the freezing was necessary to prevent the defendants from dissipating them. 'With a few keystrokes, the Defendants could transfer all of the $LIBRA proceeds held in cryptocurrency, including the contents of the Subject Wallets, beyond the reach of this court and the victims to whom they rightfully belong,' reads the freeze request. Yesterday, the court agreed: it made an order preventing the defendants from accessing the assets. The order also applies to Circle (not a defendant), who must freeze all USDC in the relevant wallets. Who is Hayden Davis, CEO of Kelsier Vetures? The freeze is a preliminary step in what promises to become a large class action lawsuit: Hurlock says the defendants stole more than $280 million via the $LIBRA scam. After the token crashed and criticism over the project mounted, Davis posted a video to Twitter, presenting himself as an advisor to the Argentine president and conceding that 'things didn't go according to plan' with the $LIBRA launch. Though he promises to return 'every single dollar that was collected from fees, or farming or liquidity,' the class action lawsuit accuses Davis and his co-defendants of seeking to avoid responsibility for the $LIBRA fiasco. 'He was an architect of the $LIBRA scam. He had committed other cryptocurrency frauds before and after $LIBRA unravelled. He (and his family member co-defendants, Thomas and Gideon) have been avoiding service. Most importantly, Davis has shown precious little interest in refunding $LIBRA purchasers, commenting 'it's horseshit that people would throw all their life savings into these' and blaming his victims for making a 'completely speculative investment.'' Hayden Davis and Kelsier involved in $MELANIA scam Indeed, details on Kelsier Ventures are scant. Its website is now defunct, but a version of it appears to still be accessible. It does not contain any details on other projects in which Kelsier has been involved. According to Bubblemaps on X, Hayden Davis was also involved in the $MELANIA pump and dump, which similarly saw investors flock to a vaguely politically-affiliated coin only for it to crash dramatically shortly after. Davis remains a free man, lawsuits notwithstanding. However, scrutiny is ramping up: federal prosecutors in Argentina are investigating the incident, and there have been calls for an international arrest warrant to be issued for Davis. There's no indication that has happened—yet. What's next For now, those affected by the $LIBRA scam can be assured that a large portion of its proceeds are now frozen and inaccessible to Davis and his co-defendants. Both the defendants and Circle will have an opportunity to appear before the Judge on June 9, where they can argue why the injunction should not be extended for the duration of the lawsuit. Watch: Bringing the Metanet to life with Teranode title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
Malay Mail
29-05-2025
- Business
- Malay Mail
US court approves RM950m forfeiture in alleged stock scam involving five Malaysians; landmark recovery for FBI
KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 — A US court has approved the forfeiture of approximately US$214 million (RM950 million) linked to an alleged 'pump-and-dump' fraud scheme involving seven individuals, including five Malaysians. According to a statement by the US Attorney's Office yesterday, the funds — seized during an investigation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) — will be returned to confirmed victims of the scheme. 'The large forfeiture order of more than $200 million should serve as a warning that federal law enforcement will aggressively pursue fraudulent profits from those who seek to prey upon investors by manipulating the US stock market,' read the statement 'Despite the overwhelming manipulation as alleged in this case, this serves as one of the premier FBI investigations in which the federal government was able to successfully recover victims' hard-earned money before it disappeared into overseas bank accounts,' it added. The alleged fraud, which occurred between November 2024 and February 2025, involved misleading promotions and coordinated trading of shares in China Liberal Education Holdings, causing prices to spike before the defendants allegedly sold off their shares for profit. US authorities said many investors, misled by false claims shared via social media and messaging apps, suffered significant losses when the stock's value later collapsed. The motion to forfeit the funds was granted on Tuesday, by US district judge Jorge L Alonso. The seven accused — five Malaysians, namely Lim Xiang Jie, Ko Sen Chai, King Sung Wong, Siong Wee Vun and Kok Wah Wong, and two Taiwanese nationals — remain at large, with arrest warrants issued. To note, 'pump and dump' scheme involves fraudsters spreading false or misleading information — often online — to inflate a stock's price so they can sell their shares at a profit. Once the price crashes, unsuspecting investors who bought in at the peak are left with significant losses.
