Lesson 04 · Unit 7 · Solana
Wash trading and fake volume
One wallet, two hands, infinite volume.
Volume is supposed to mean interest: real people trading real money. But nothing stops one actor from selling to themselves between their own wallets, all day, at fee cost. That is wash trading — and it exists because volume is what feeds every 'trending' list on every screen in crypto.
Wallet A buys from Wallet B
same owner
Wallet B buys it back
Chart prints $40K 'volume'
Token trends
Real buyers arrive
Do
Compare volume with liquidity — $2M 'volume' on a $9K pool is a printer, not a market
Check unique traders and their funding, not the raw dollar figure
Treat trending placement as an advertisement someone may have paid for in fees
Don't
Read big volume as big interest by default
Trust a trending list more than a scan
Assume wash trading is rare — it is cheap, legal-gray, and everywhere
Wash trading
Trading with yourself to print volume. Costs only fees; buys placement on every screen that ranks by volume.
Where this goes next
Which leaves the practical question: what volume is worth believing, and where you read it.