I'm not sure why it's on HN, but it's real.<p>It was originally happening in the public channel #dogecoin-market on Freenode but was then moved to the private channel #marketmakers, which seems to have spurred people to start sharing it everywhere since now it's private.<p>Wolong is the guy who brought the Dogecoin price to where it is now by investing a ton of money into it, and due to that and some charisma he's attracted a cult following. He's now using that cult following to have them do pump/dump ops for him (with their money).<p>Here's his manifesto: <a href="http://pastebin.com/RdRAULtT" rel="nofollow">http://pastebin.com/RdRAULtT</a><p>It's entertaining, I'm waiting for someone to do a solid article on the story.<p>Bear in mind that cryptocurrencies are currently an unregulated wild west, where activities like these are both common and legal. Do not invest anything you are not prepared to lose.<p>edit: just for further corroboration, here's logs from a few days ago: <a href="http://pastebin.com/1NTTBCXM" rel="nofollow">http://pastebin.com/1NTTBCXM</a><p>You can check the charts at <a href="http://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/cryptsy/dogebtc" rel="nofollow">http://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/cryptsy/dogebtc</a> and see how that was responsible for a drop to 212. From memory they were using about 36million dogecoins, which comes out to approximately 78btc or $65,000.<p>My pet theory is that wolong is just building trust at this point so he can eventually have his army of followers buy all his dogecoins at inflated prices, but who knows. No matter what happens, it's very entertaining to watch develop.
The amusing/sad thing is that so many folks don't realize that only a few of the "market movers" actually profit. Those who don't have the inside inside track, will lose when those who make the call to buy and sell. The whole "we move the market" thing is accurate...but, the suckers who think they're part of moving the market are just the people giving money to "-wolong-". I have a hard time feeling sorry for people losing money in such a scheme, because they intended to take money from others...but, still, the biggest asshole in this scenario is the leader of the pump.
Meh. The only reason the price is as low as it is currently is that A) $850,000 needs to be added to the market every single day just to keep the price stable B) Coinbase et al. literally can't convert dollars to BTC fast enough. The situation is similar to how whenever Apple releases a new iPhone, it takes literally months until there is enough supply to match the demand.<p>While this market manipulation is blatantly unethical and possibly illegal, in the long run it's going to be larger economic factors that determine the success or failure of the currency.
Archived 4chan thread where the leak happened: <a href="http://rbt.asia/g/thread/S39865892" rel="nofollow">http://rbt.asia/g/thread/S39865892</a>.<p>-- Edit --<p>More logs got leaked at <a href="http://pastebin.com/7itGzitH" rel="nofollow">http://pastebin.com/7itGzitH</a>. I have not read them yet, so cannot tell you if there is anything of value in there.
It's interesting that this could all be 'fake'. You don't actually need 'followers' to do this. If you lead the public to think that there's a massive pump/dump going on, you can make the public follow your orders. Obviously you need to discuss on public forums, or 'leak by accident'.
I feel sorry for the people participating in this market manipulation. I made a good chunk of BTC thanks to wolong's forewarning of his upcoming pump he made days ago but left it at that.<p>The character started insisting 10k doge tips for him to answer questions on irc, then moved to a private channel where to get an invite you basically have to prove you at least have 10 BTC and are willing to let him ultimately execute trades on your behalf. There are lots of fools in that channel who will soon find themselves parted with their money.
It would be shocking if there was not manipulation in a completely unregulated market. We can't stop manipulation in regulated markets, without any rules it's the wild west.
“I feel so awful for those who lost here.”<p>Nothing sweeter than the tears of someone who lost money truing to manipulate other people into losing money ...
Anyone have a link to a tl;dr on how market manipulation like this works? It seems like crypto-currencies are ripe for for this of thing and it doesn't take much money to do it.<p>Presumably the hidden information you have from being part of a cabal means it's different than just changing your risk distribution like a Martingale betting strategy does.
To bad there isn't this kind of transparency in the real supposedly regulated markets. There is manipulation there all the time only we never hear about it because it isn't being done by some guy in a public IRC channel.
I'm not sure if people think crypto currency market manipulation is new but this was going on far before Dogecoin came out.<p><a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/in-the-murky-world-of-bitcoin-fraud-is-quicker-than-the-law/" rel="nofollow">http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/in-the-murky-world-of...</a><p><a href="https://twitter.com/Fontase" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/Fontase</a>
Is the main idea behind this scheme to get other participants to lower the price and since the orchestrators got their positions earlier they profit or do they simply need the volume of the masses to make their scheme profitable? If it's the latter, couldn't they just get a large enough loan and move the markets with their own funds seeing as Dogecoin is still a relatively small market?
I guess this Wolong person is taking the scam serious..<p>> Wolong To Launch A Forum<p>> The plan is to make the forum private and tight-knit; thereby locking out trolls. According to him, the entrance fee will be between $25-$30 USD<p><a href="http://www.dailydoge.org/2014/01/wolong-to-launch-a-forum/" rel="nofollow">http://www.dailydoge.org/2014/01/wolong-to-launch-a-forum/</a>
Pumping is going on in every crypto currency right now. If it isn't as straightforward as a chat log, it is being done more subtly in other ways. Alt-currencies, (i.e. not bitcoin) seem to have more pump and dump going on.
The market is about buying low and selling high, or selling high and buying low.<p>If you trade with out an edge you're a moron. I really hope no one trades actual markets believing they can 'pick' equities.
It's fun to hear many people saying: "Jamaican bobsleigh donations raised Dogecoin prices", while it's just series of small speculative attacks on cryptocurrency happening.
Gee, I totally get somebody putting money into Bitcoin or mining Litecoin, but the rest are honest scamcoins (or at least - circuscoins). If you mine, then it's probably okay, although it still costs you real money (energy, hardware, opportunity cost, etc.), but to put money (fiat or bitcoins) into it - you need to be completely out of your mind!
This is the exact same thing that happened in bitcoin markets early on.<p>When the capitalization of the market is so low and a small number of people control a large amount of the currency/commodity there really isn't much you can do about it.
This seems to be the channel in question [1].<p>[1] <a href="http://irc.netsplit.de/channels/details.php?net=freenode&room=%23dogecoin-market" rel="nofollow">http://irc.netsplit.de/channels/details.php?net=freenode&roo...</a>
I've always thought of dogecoin as the "CJ" of cryptocurrencies, and I'm still not entirely sure I'm mistaken about that.<p>In that context, this is a much tamer "conspiracy" than I expected.
Click: <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/shibedojo" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/shibedojo</a> (<- We trade Doge the pro way)