The very short summary of "how to spot a pump&dump":
Small cap, small volume and an exponential move in price -- that's a pump.
That's when it comes to scams that happen on a smaller scale, but something similar even occurred with a SERIOUS cryptocurrency Etherium (ETH) recently:
A lot of questionable ICOs picked up "investments" in ETH and started selling off their stock when the market projections turned sour. As all of the rats jumped ship almost simultaneously, the ETH price capsized.
well said
the problem with Ethereum is so many ICO's raised million's $ a few 100's of millions mostly in Ether so a lot of Ethereum's wealth distribution is centralised to those ICOs
one of the most important factors i think with pump and dumps is the centralization of wealth
bitcoin isn't too bad but with so many long term holders it hurts in terms of price discovery/liquidity as they aren't part of the market leaving a lot of room for medium sized players to effect the market