Machine Learning-Based Detection of Pump-and-Dump Schemes in Real-Time

Abstract: Cryptocurrency markets often face manipulation through prevalent pump-and-dump (P&D) schemes, where self-organized Telegram groups, some exceeding two million members, artificially inflate target cryptocurrency prices. These groups sell premium access to inside information, worsening information asymmetry and financial risks for subscribers and all investors. This paper presents a real-time prediction pipeline to forecast target coins and alert investors to possible P&D schemes. In a Poloniex case study, the model accurately identified the target coin among the top five from 50 random coins in 24 out of 43 (55.81%) P&D events. The pipeline uses advanced NLP to classify Telegram messages, identifying 2,079 past pump events and detecting new ones in real-time. Our analysis also evaluates the susceptibility of token standards - ERC-20, ERC-721, BRC-20, Inscriptions, and Runes - to manipulation and identifies exchanges commonly involved in P&D schemes.