A shadowy Telegram organization of veteran “degenerates” is allegedly running a highly orchestrated multi-chain pump-and-dump scheme that can drive microcap tokens to seven-figure valuations within minutes, according to a new forensic investigation by the Solidus Institute.
That group is “PumpCell” has been active since at least late 2024 and specializes in manipulating new tokens on the Solana and BNB chains.
Solidus analysis shows that the ring orchestrates synchronized token introductions, bot-driven purchases, fabricated hype campaigns, and timed exits aimed at unloading inflated tokens to unsuspecting retail traders.
“To give you an idea of the magnitude of the problem, here is one random channel with (only) a few dozen users from a small country in southern Europe, and with just a few dozen pumped tokens, it raised a total of $800,000 in just one month, but quickly lost all its value,” Spyridon Antonopoulos, vice president of research at Solidus Labs, told CoinDesk.
“This paints an alarming picture of victim exploitation, especially when you estimate the tens of thousands of tokens fired per day on Solana, BSC, Base, and other networks.”
Inside the PumpCell playbook
Solidus said Pump Cell’s playbook starts with deploying or identifying new tokens, securing liquidity, and then using sniper bots like Maestro and Banana Gun to participate in trades within seconds of launch. These early purchases cause many artificial large price spikes, trigger automatic alerts, and attract copy traders.
Research shows that members then spin meme-driven narratives, often imitating real projects or capitalizing on cultural trends, to lure additional buyers before retreating at the peak.
One token, ZERO, reached a fully diluted valuation of nearly $2 million in less than an hour on Solana, while other tokens such as “Inspiration Mushroom” and the parody “Shanghai Composite Index 6900” token experienced similar spikes before crashing. Solidus estimates that the group generated a profit of approximately $800,000 in October 2025 alone.
Solidus found that more than a quarter of Ring-linked wallets ended up funneling their funds to centralized exchanges, including Binance. Some members also allegedly cashed out through OTC brokers in Eastern Europe who delivered physical currency in exchange for on-chain transfers. According to Solidus, this method allowed operators to completely avoid compliance controls.
This study highlights how the permissionless architecture of cryptocurrencies enables manipulation mechanisms that deviate from traditional markets. Lightning-fast contract deployment, AMM-driven liquidity, sub-second bot execution, and anonymous cross-chain mobility make coordinated schemes difficult to detect with traditional monitoring tools built for centralized orderbook markets.
Solidus argues that modern oversight must integrate real-time AMM analysis, behavioral wallet clustering, and on-chain fund tracking to identify such operations. The company warns that PumpCell is not an outlier, but a template for modern digital asset abuse, executed at high speed and scale.
Antonopoulos added that exchanges have a “duty to protect consumers” given the number of platforms exposing their own Layer 2 networks.
“Virtually all the big exchanges are basically opening up the floodgates by having a layer 2 that they want to keep as permissionless as possible. They don’t want to be gatekeepers, they want to protect what’s good about cryptocurrencies, but at the same time they have an obligation to protect consumers,” he said.
“In reality, we are in a world where they may be listing thousands of tokens a day. They may not be on the order book, but they are available for trading in liquidity pools and L2.”
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