All terms
Trading with yourself to fake volume and interest.
Wash trading means buying and selling the same asset between wallets you control, creating the appearance of activity without any real transfer of risk.
It inflates volume rankings and NFT sales figures, which is why volume alone is a poor measure of genuine interest.
Compare volume across several independent sources, and be skeptical of tokens whose volume exceeds their market cap by a wide margin.
That volume proves demand. A single actor trading with themselves produces volume that looks identical on a chart, and it is cheap to do on venues with low fees. Compare volume against liquidity and holder count before treating it as interest.
Common questions
How can I tell if volume is fake?
Why do people wash trade?
Where this comes up on the site
The guides that actually use this word, rather than a list of everything we have written.
Where to go next
More security terms
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