A shadowy Telegram ring of seasoned “degens” has allegedly been running highly coordinated, multi-chain pump-and-dump schemes capable of pushing micro-cap tokens to seven-figure valuations within minutes, according to a new forensic investigation by Solidus Labs.

The group, dubbed “PumpCell,” has been active since at least late 2024 and specializes in manipulation of new tokens on Solana and BNB Chain.

Solidus’ analysis shows the ring orchestrating synchronized token deployments, bot-driven buying, fabricated hype campaigns and timed exits designed to unload inflated tokens onto unsuspecting retail traders.

"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," Spyridon Antonopoulos, vice president of investigations at Solidus Labs told CoinDesk.

"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."

Inside PumpCell’s Playbook

Solidus says PumpCell’s playbook begins with deploying or identifying new tokens, seeding liquidity, then using sniper bots such as Maestro and Banana Gun to enter trades within seconds of launch. These early buys often create massive artificial price spikes that trigger automated alerts and draw in copy traders.

Members then spin meme-driven narratives, often impersonating real projects or leveraging cultural trends, to lure additional buyers before exiting at the peak, according to the investigation.

One token, ZERO, reached a nearly $2 million fully diluted valuation in under an hour on Solana, while others such as “inspiration mushroom” and a parody “shanghai composite index 6900” token saw similar surges before collapsing. Solidus estimates the group generated roughly $800,000 in profits during October 2025 alone.

More than a quarter of the wallets linked to the ring eventually funneled funds into centralized exchanges, including Binance, Solidus found. Some members also allegedly cashed out through an Eastern European OTC broker who delivered physical currency in exchange for on-chain transfers — a method that, Solidus says, allowed the operators to avoid compliance controls entirely.

The investigation highlights how crypto’s permissionless architecture enables manipulation mechanics that diverge from traditional markets. Ultra-fast contract deployment, AMM-driven liquidity, sub-second bot execution and anonymous cross-chain mobility make coordinated schemes difficult to detect with legacy surveillance tools built for centralized order-book markets.

Solidus argues that modern supervision must integrate real-time AMM analytics, behavioral wallet clustering and onchain fund tracing to identify such operations. PumpCell, the firm warns, is not an outlier but a template for contemporary digital-asset abuse operating at speed and scale.

Antonopoulos added that exchanges have an "obligation for consumer protection," given the amount of platforms that are releasing their own layer-2 networks.

"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 as 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."