Anyone who are very familiar with pump and dump schemes in stock markets can tell that crypto markets are full of such scams. Crypto markets are unregulated. This means any illegal schemes banned in stock markets are being actively exploited in crypto markets.
The No. 1 scheme is tape painting, which is "a form of market manipulation whereby market players attempt to influence the price of a security by buying and/or selling it among themselves so as to create the appearance of substantial trading activity in the security." This is illegal in regulated markets. But crypto markets are being manipulated heavily by such scheme. You can do your own guesswork to tell who would be very interested in doing so!
Bitcoin is still largely the only entry point where any new crypto players need to exchange fiat money for bitcoins first before they can exchange bitcoins for any altcoin. This scheme is to prop up the leader, like the FAANG stocks in NASDAQ. Bitcoin is being propped up as the benchmark that altcoin can messure up against. But as we all know, bitcoin has huge flaws. Now Just imagine crypto markets suddenly allow new players to exchange fiat money for altcoins directly bypassing bitcoins. What will happen? Bitcoin will crash 90% or more when most new altcoins are technically superior to bitcoin. So eventually, a new leader will replace bitcoin. This single point of entry does not exist in regulated market either. When bitcoin crashes due to losing single point of entry status, there will be huge chaos in the crypto markets.
Binance has become the largest exchange. Again, it is operated by Chinese and played by Chinese "gamblers
", who really only care about the wealth effects. By now, 99% of the crypto players are thrilled by the wealth effects. I have many friends who know nothing about crypto and economics, but are so sure about making a bang in crypto trading.
Folks, this won't end well.