Question 1

What is crypto pump and dump manipulation?

Accepted Answer

Pump-and-dump is coordinated price manipulation where insiders or groups orchestrate a short-term price rally on thin liquidity, then dump supply onto retail buyers who FOMO in. In spot-only markets it's hard to detect. But in derivatives markets it leaves a signature: if price pumps while perpetual funding rates stay flat or negative, there is no conviction in the leveraged book — the rally is spot-driven distribution, not a real uptrend.

Question 2

How is the 0-10 pump-and-dump score calculated?

Accepted Answer

The score combines price/funding divergence (how far price has moved without funding following) and funding magnitude (how deeply negative funding has gone on a pumping coin). Both are measured on a 72-hour rolling window across 13 perpetual exchanges and blended into a 0-10 composite. Scores of 7+ flag clean manipulation setups; 5-7 are watch-list; below 5 is noise. Full methodology at /pump-dump/methodology.

Question 3

Is this a reliable sell signal?

Accepted Answer

In a walk-forward backtest over 12 months across 394 coins, strong signals (score ≥ 7) hit 86.4% at 30 days with median −24.6% — substantially better edge than random from the same universe on the same entry dates. This is experimental signal data, not financial advice: past backtest performance does not guarantee future results, and pump/dump detection is inherently probabilistic. Combine with liquidity checks and other signals.

Question 4

How often does pump and dump data refresh?

Accepted Answer

Funding rate snapshots refresh every 30 minutes from direct exchange REST APIs. The composite score recalculates hourly using the latest 72-hour rolling divergence window. Newly flagged tokens appear on the leaderboard within 5 minutes of each score-refresh cycle.

Question 5

Does Sharpe accuse specific tokens of manipulation?

Accepted Answer

No. Scores are derived from publicly available derivatives data (funding rates, price) and reflect structural signatures of distribution — not accusations of illegal activity. A high score means the on-chain and derivatives data are consistent with a pump-and-dump pattern; it does not imply any specific actor is responsible. Sharpe is an analytics platform; no trading or recommendation is implied.

Pump and Dump Detector