Token Price Manipulation

Definition ∞ Token Price Manipulation involves artificial actions undertaken to influence the market value of a digital asset unfairly, creating a misleading appearance of supply or demand. This activity can include wash trading, pump-and-dump schemes, or exploiting market inefficiencies to distort price discovery. Such practices undermine market integrity and harm legitimate investors. It is a form of market abuse that distorts true asset valuation.
Context ∞ Token price manipulation remains a persistent challenge in the relatively unregulated digital asset markets, frequently leading to significant financial losses for retail investors and attracting regulatory scrutiny. Discussions often address the need for stricter market surveillance, enhanced regulatory enforcement, and investor education to identify and avoid such schemes. A critical future development involves implementing more sophisticated algorithmic detection systems and cross-market monitoring.