According to the source, low-liquidity altcoins are vulnerable to manipulation, with large whale moves and artificial social hype often preceding sharp drawdowns, making proactive monitoring essential for traders; source: public social media post dated Oct 22, 2025; CFTC Customer Advisory on virtual currency pump-and-dump schemes (2018). Actionable detection: track holder concentration and liquidity pool depth in Nansen to identify outsized whale influence and shallow markets; source: Nansen documentation on token distribution and wallet labeling. Check DEXTools for pair liquidity, DEXTscore, and liquidity lock status to flag high-risk tokens before entry; source: DEXTools knowledge base on DEXTscore and liquidity analysis. Monitor LunarCrush social volume and engagement spikes that diverge from on-chain activity to detect coordinated hype; source: LunarCrush methodology and product documentation. Trading implications: thin liquidity and concentrated ownership amplify price impact from large wallets and coordinated social activity, often followed by abrupt reversals; source: CFTC Customer Advisory (2018) and academic research on crypto pump-and-dump coordination by Xu and Livshits (2018). Risk controls include avoiding tokens with shallow liquidity and concentrated top holders, limiting position size, and enforcing strict slippage limits when executing; source: CFTC Customer Advisory (2018) and Nansen documentation on supply distribution.