PumpCell Telegram Group Orchestrated $800K in Pump-and-Dump Schemes on Solana and BNB Chain

A forensic investigation by blockchain analytics firm Solidus Labs has detailed the operations of a Telegram group known as “PumpCell,” which coordinated sophisticated pump-and-dump schemes across the Solana and BNB Chain networks. In October 2025 alone, the group generated approximately $800,000 in profits by artificially inflating the value of micro-cap tokens to seven-figure valuations within minutes before collapsing them.

The group's method followed a repeatable structure: members would either deploy or identify new tokens, seed initial liquidity, and then use sniper bots such as Maestro and Banana Gun to purchase tokens within seconds of launch. These rapid buys created sudden price spikes that triggered automated trading alerts, drawing in copy traders and creating the illusion of organic momentum. The scheme was amplified by flooding social channels with meme-driven narratives, fake project updates, and impersonations of recognizable brands.

"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.

Specific examples cited include the ZERO token on Solana, which briefly touched a nearly $2 million fully diluted valuation in under an hour, and other short-lived tokens like “inspiration mushroom” and a parody “shanghai composite index 6900” coin. After liquidity thickened from incoming retail buyers, insiders would exit their positions, causing the tokens to collapse.

To obfuscate fund flows, more than a quarter of wallets connected to the scheme sent proceeds to centralized exchanges like Binance. Others utilized an Eastern European over-the-counter (OTC) cash broker who provided physical currency in exchange for on-chain crypto transfers, effectively bypassing standard compliance checks.

Solidus Labs emphasized that the architecture of crypto—featuring automated market makers (AMMs), near-instant contract deployment, and cross-chain pseudonymity—enables this rapid, low-friction manipulation. Legacy surveillance tools built for centralized order books are ineffective against such AMM-driven pump cycles. The firm advocates for advanced monitoring incorporating wallet clustering, real-time liquidity pattern analysis, and detailed fund tracing.

Antonopoulos also highlighted the role of exchanges launching their own layer-2 networks, which enable thousands of new tokens to appear daily 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... But at the same time, they have an obligation for consumer protection," he stated.