Solana Whales Are Manipulating Markets: How Fake Volume Pumps New Meme Tokens
Solana's big players are at it again—orchestrating artificial pumps in low-cap meme coins. Whale wallets move, charts spike, and retail FOMO follows. Here's how the game works.
Anatomy of a Pump: Wash Trading 101
Whales execute circular trades between controlled wallets, generating phantom volume. Exchanges list these tokens as 'trending,' algorithms pick them up, and the cycle feeds itself—until the dump.
The Aftermath: Bagholders and Broken Dreams
When the music stops, the whales cash out at ATHs. Retail traders? Left holding bags of worthless tokens—another masterclass in 'free market efficiency.'
Solana's speed enables this circus, but let's be real—since when has crypto let pesky things like 'real demand' get in the way of a good speculative frenzy?
Solana DEX users retreat, volumes remain high
The potential for wash trading on Solana and the presence of whales are reflected in the shift of active users.
Solana DEX volumes remained relatively high, reaching $3.74B in 24 hours. The volumes recovered from the slump in April and May, rising to a higher baseline.
At the same time, traders saw a significant outflow in 2025. As of September 2025, Solana carried around 1M traders daily, with 300K single-day traders and around 600K repeat traders. The chain still retains higher economic value, but there are reports that the ‘trenches’ and retail are not that influential.
One whale creates fake JUP volumes
Wash trading not only affects meme tokens but can also pump existing assets linked to other Solana projects.
Jupiter’s native token JUP is one example. On-chain analysts have noted that a single whale produced outsized trading volumes.
The whale used lending facilities to generate up to $48.8B in trading volume in a short timespan. The whale did not make profits, but the constant buying and selling of tokens kept the wallets ready to benefit from any token rally or inflows of external liquidity.
The wallet’s history shows constant small swaps between USDC and JUP, leading to the inflated volumes. The wallet adds to the general presence of high-frequency bots deployed on DEX pools.
The presence of fake volumes may undermine trust in Solana, as the chain boasts record metrics in terms of value locked and fee production. At the same time, fake volumes and HYPE are one of the factors leading to fee extraction for apps.
Whale wash trading is somewhat similar to bot activities. However, recent data shows anonymous whales now target even smaller projects. Their activity is more limited than market-makers pumping celebrity tokens, but it can still lead to losses for any retail buyers.
Get $50 free to trade crypto when you sign up to Bybit now
