What is Pump and Dump (P&D)?

A pump and dump occurs when a trader or investment firm buys a large amount of an asset — sometimes illegally — and later promotes, or "pumps" up the underlying asset with misleading information to encourage unsuspecting investors to buy in to increase its value. Shortly afterwards, they "dump" (sell) the asset at a higher price, which often results in losses to subsequent investors. In crypto markets, this often occurs when a whale buys a large quantity of a specific crypto asset that pumps the price. This tends to bring other investors which pump the price further and allows the whale to profitably "dump" his holdings.