Market Manipulation? This is How Whales Operate and How You Can Protect Yourself

Have you ever seen a token skyrocket for no reason... and then plummet in minutes? You're not crazy. You likely witnessed a form of market manipulation.

What is market manipulation?

It's when someone —usually with a lot of capital or influence— alters the price of an asset to their advantage, leaving unsuspecting investors with losses. Although cryptocurrencies strive for transparency, the reality is that there are still actors playing dirty. But don't worry: learning to identify these signals is your best defense.

Common forms of manipulation

1. Pump & Dump

The price of a token is inflated with coordinated purchases (the “pump”) and then everything is sold off at once (the “dump”), leaving those who bought late trapped.

Binance Tip: Use tools like Binance Spot Grid to set up automatic buying and selling to protect yourself from these artificial spikes.

2. Spoofing

Huge buy or sell orders are placed that are never intended to be executed, just to influence market sentiment.

How to detect it? In Binance Advanced Trading, you can analyze the depth of market and see if large orders suddenly disappear.

3. Wash Trading

The same actor buys and sells to themselves to simulate volume. Although Binance actively works to combat this, it remains common in unregulated exchanges.

Tip: Trust platforms with audits and data transparency.

4. Induced FUD and FOMO

False or exaggerated news designed to provoke fear (FUD) or euphoria (FOMO). A viral narrative can move millions... for better or worse.

Useful tool: Enable alerts in the Binance app to receive only verified news and avoid getting carried away by rumors.

Who is behind this? continues part 2.