Pump-and-Dump meets Honeypot Tokens: Detection and Analysis of Telegram Bait-and-Trap Schemes

2026-10-07

AI Summary

This study addresses a novel "Bait-and-Trap" fraud scheme exploiting honeypot tokens on decentralized exchanges. By monitoring Telegram channels and analyzing on-chain events, it reveals how orchestrators leverage sell-restricting smart contracts to defraud investors. Methodologically, this work provides the first formal definition and empirical characterization of this fraud pattern, integrating blockchain data analysis, contract state testing, and transaction simulation techniques to develop a real-time defense strategy. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach identifies fraudulent activities with 99.3% accuracy, extracts evidence of illicit profits exceeding $7 million, and delivers an effective practical defense tool.

Abstract

While Pump-and-Dump schemes have been extensively studied on centralized exchanges (CEXs), how they operate in decentralized exchanges (DEXs) remains largely unexplored. We monitor 83 Telegram channels used to coordinate Pump-and-Dump campaigns and collect 3,677 events across the BNB Smart Chain and Ethereum. Our analysis reveals that, although these operations superficially resemble CEX-based Pump-and-Dump schemes, their underlying mechanism is fundamentally different. Rather than manipulating prices, organizers orchestrate deceptive Pump-and-Dump campaigns around honeypot tokens whose smart contracts allow Telegram subscribers to buy but prevent them from selling. Unaware of this restriction, victims purchase these tokens and are unable to recover their funds. We refer to this new fraud mechanism as Bait-and-Trap. We show that Bait-and-Trap provides a substantially more reliable profit strategy than Pump-and-Dump schemes: organizers gain in 99.3% of cases, extracting over $7 million in profit. To counter this threat, we develop a transaction-simulation tool that detects honeypot tokens before purchase by testing whether a user can successfully sell against the token's live contract state, providing a practical defense against Bait-and-Trap operations.

Problem

• Pump-and-Dump
• Honeypot Tokens
• Decentralized Exchanges
• Bait-and-Trap
• Cryptocurrency Fraud

Innovation

• Honeypot Tokens
• Bait-and-Trap
• Transaction Simulation
• Pump-and-Dump
• Smart Contract Security