Insider's Story: an Artist Joins a Secret Pump-and-Dump Group [Surprise Discovery Inside!]

Two weeks ago I wrote about my fancy new hardware wallet, the Trezor. Since then, I have been reading about cryptocurrency, blockchains, trading on exchanges and, most fascinating, the "pump-and-dump groups". Apparently these are rising in popularity in close correlation with increasing public awareness of the main crypto/blockchain projects like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Steem. (LOL, I love talking like this, I used to know nothing about any of these technologies :D )

But to the point: always do your own research before believing in things that sound too good to be true! Case in point: I've joined a P&D group on Telegram, and witnessed a pump-event today. At exactly 18:00 GMT+1 the admin of the group (which has over 11k members! I wonder how many are fake...) posts the pump's target: eBoost (EBST) on Bittrex exchange, an insignificant altcoin that is close to, if not completely, dead. Before the pump announcement, 24 hour volume was $33,000. At 18:30, half an hour after the signal, the 24 hour volume totaled over $3.8 million! The tiny eBoost had reached a peak of 16 times its starting value, a record for both eBoost and the P&D group.

But! A closer look at the Bittrex graph at a 1-minute candle detailed view shows something very interesting...

That's right, despite the pump signal being communicated at 18:00:xx there is a significant volume a minute earlier. Close enough for most people not to even notice, and early enough to ensure the admin of the group scores a huge profit by dumping on his followers. Imagine him only buying 1 bitcoin worth of eBoost, and selling at 16x... That's a 15 BTC profit in less than 2 minutes!

Conclusion: don't believe whatever people claim, especially when money is involved. I've even seen these P&D groups being promoted on Steemit! I don't remember by whom though, please comment if you recall this better than me.

Next up: artwork! I need to keep a distance of all things digital, even when studying them is incredibly fascinating... Art is my home, let crypto be my backyard. Time to sit by the stove. :)