Glossary entry
Wash Trading
Trading & MarketsWash trading fakes volume by trading with yourself. Why it inflates rankings and liquidity signals, and the on-chain patterns that expose it.
Definition
Wash trading is the practice of buying and selling the same asset against yourself, or with a coordinating counterparty, to create trading activity that no one actually wanted. The point is the tape rather than the position: inflated volume can push a token up ranking tables, satisfy a listing requirement, or make a market look liquid to newcomers. It is prohibited market manipulation in regulated venues, and researchers have documented it extensively on crypto exchanges and NFT marketplaces, where rewards paid per unit of volume made the behaviour directly profitable. Warning signs include volume concentrated in a handful of addresses, trades that repeatedly round-trip the same amount, and volume that dwarfs order-book depth.
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