Are organised pump and dumps haram?

Investment Questions and Chats Crypto
#1

Often in crypto forums and groups we are finding investors are organising pump and dumps. This is where people come together and agree to buy a crypto at a particular time and immediately sell to make a profit.

Is this haram?

One argument in favour of it being haram is that it can harm investors if they see the crypto pumping and they decide to invest/trade, thinking they will make a return, not aware that it’s being intentionally increased by traders only to sell immediately.

However, a counter argument people can give is that traders make the market volatile anyways whenever there is news regarding the crypto (if there is some good news, they might decide to invest even if the good news is temporary). Often this can result in dumps anyways and those who aren’t careful can lose money. As for losing money, a person can set an OCO, where the crypto automatically sells if it goes above a certain point and sells if it goes below a certain point. Thus, they can manage their risk.

Personally, I don’t think it is financially wise to participate in this kind of activity anyways. Sounds to me to be just a scam or pyramid scheme for traders. However for the sake of knowing, I would like to know if this is haram and if Muslims should stay clear of it either way (even if they have a way to guarantee profit)?

And what if a Muslim was investing in and/or trading with this crypto anyways and it just so happened that a group decided to pump and dump it? Should the Muslim stop trading on that crypto until after the pump and dump? Or is it permissible to keep trading despite the actions of the group?

#2

@Mufti_Faraz_Adam I’d appreciate an answer to this too.

#3

Organized group of people agree to buy let’s say today at 1 am certain crypto coin, because of that price goes up, more and more people or bots recognize the tendency of price going up and start buying too.
Price keeps pumping and at certain moment (assuming after 30 or 60 minutes) original organized group of people start dumping (selling) at current raised price and making profit. Who loses? Anyone who bought and kept the crypto coin or anyone who sold it eventually especially bots with stop loss function.
In my opinion, I think it’s called speculation and prohibited not only in islam. but there are no means to control it yet in crypto world.
My friend was playing with such spikes trying to make profit, manually without bot and lost some money eventually understanding that his loss was someone’s profit and these spikes make someone rich and based on other’s loss. He got depressed for few days.