Question: is it illegal to pump and dump stocks

Answer: Yes, ``Pump and dump'' (P&D) is a form of securities fraud that involves artificially inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements, in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price. Once the operators of the scheme ``dump'' sell their overvalued shares, the price falls and investors lose their money. This is most common with small cap cryptocurrencies and very small corporations, i.e. ``microcaps''. See Microcap stock fraud.