SEC Charges 8 Social Media Influencers In Alleged $100M Stock Manipulation Scheme

U.S. prosecutors have announced charging eight social media influencers in a securities fraud scheme, alleging that they used platforms like Twitter and Discord to manipulate stocks, which netted them around $114 million.

Pump and dump is a crypto speak-for scheme that usually happens when creators, collaborators and conspirators use misleading information to spike the price of a crypto asset. When the asset's price surges, these people sell their holdings at a profit.

According to the SEC, this is what the eight so-called influencers did to earn more than $100 million.