A new forensic investigation by Solidus Labs details how a Telegram group known as “PumpCell” coordinated fast-moving pump-and-dump schemes across Solana and BNB Chain, inflating micro-cap tokens to seven-figure valuations within minutes. The group relied on synchronized token launches, sniper-bot entries and meme-heavy marketing stunts to draw in retail traders before unloading their positions. Solidus says the ring generated roughly $800,000 in October 2025 alone. Funds were moved through centralized exchanges and an OTC cash broker who provided physical currency in exchange for on-chain transfers. According to the report, the setup allowed operators to sidestep platform checks while operating across multiple chains.
"To frame the magnitude of the problem: here you have one random channel with (only) a few dozen users from a small Southern European country... and it raked in $800,000 in total in just one month across just a few dozen pumped tokens that soon after lost all value," said Spyridon Antonopoulos, vice president of investigations at Solidus Labs.
Investor Takeaway
Micro-cap token launches remain an easy target for coordinated manipulation. The pace of these schemes — often minutes from launch to collapse — makes traditional market surveillance tools ineffective.
What Does Solidus Say About PumpCell’s Method?
The investigation outlines a repeatable structure. Members either deploy or identify new tokens, seed initial liquidity, then use sniper bots such as Maestro and Banana Gun to buy within seconds. The sudden spikes trigger alerts used by copy traders, creating the appearance of momentum. Alongside the bots, participants flood social channels with meme narratives, fake updates and project impersonations. These stories often piggyback on trending topics or recognizable brands. Once liquidity thickens, insiders exit while new buyers fill the order flow.
Examples identified by Solidus include ZERO, which briefly touched a nearly $2 million fully diluted valuation on Solana in under an hour, and short-lived tokens such as “inspiration mushroom” and a parody “shanghai composite index 6900” coin. Most collapsed shortly after insiders sold. More than a quarter of wallets connected to the scheme eventually sent funds to centralized exchanges including Binance, Solidus found. Others used an Eastern European OTC broker who exchanged cash for crypto transfers — an arrangement that bypassed standard compliance procedures entirely.
Why Are These Schemes Hard to Detect?
Solidus notes that crypto’s architecture enables rapid, low-friction manipulation that bears little resemblance to traditional markets. Automated market makers allow tokens to trade as soon as liquidity is seeded. Contract deployment takes seconds. Bots can enter markets before human traders react. Cross-chain pseudonymity obscures activity, and funds can move between chains without the checkpoints found in centralized venues.
The firm argues that legacy surveillance tools were built around centralized order books and cannot flag the mechanics of AMM-driven pump cycles. Effective monitoring, it says, must include wallet clustering, real-time liquidity pattern analysis and detailed tracing of fund movement.
"It paints a staggering picture of victim exploitation, especially when extrapolated across the tens of thousands of tokens launched per day across Solana, BSC, Base, and other networks," Antonopoulos said.
Investor Takeaway
A rising share of token launches are happening on fast L2s and high-throughput chains. Without on-chain behavioral detection, manipulative rings can operate at scale with little friction.
What Role Do Exchanges and L2 Networks Play?
Antonopoulos said exchanges face new obligations as they launch their own layer-2 networks, which enable thousands of new tokens to appear in liquidity pools each day without traditional listing checks. "Virtually every major exchange are basically releasing the floodgates by having a layer 2 that they want to keep as permissionless as possible. They don't want to be the gatekeepers, they want to stay with the virtues of crypto. But at the same time, they have an obligation for consumer protection," he said.
You're actually in a world where they could be listing thousands of tokens per day, maybe not in an order book but those are available for liquidity pools and trading on L2s. Solidus presents PumpCell as part of a wider pattern: manipulation groups using high-speed deployment tools and anonymous mobility to push micro-caps into brief bursts of activity before draining liquidity. The firm says more rings of this kind are likely operating across various chains, supported by the low barrier to token creation and the speed at which traders chase early momentum signals.