Recently, the trend of $PIPPIN deserves attention. The characteristics of this small-cap coin controlling the market trend and playing people for suckers are very obvious, with three overlapping risk signals. Proper risk management to avoid catching a falling knife is the right approach.

Starting from November 24, there was a continuous surge for four weeks, reaching a high of 0.51-0.52 USD by mid-December, after which a phenomenon of hitting resistance at the high occurred. It then quickly fell back to around 0.36 USD, during which time many long positions were liquidated, and many retail investors were trapped.

The signs of manipulation behind it are quite obvious. A single entity controls about 80% of the circulating supply, and this level of concentration is inherently dangerous. Even more outrageous is that a giant whale spent $3.3 million to accumulate at a low price in just three days, and then completed the harvesting by pumping up the price to lure in more investors and subsequently dumping it. This playstyle is old but effective.

The technical indicators are also sending warning signals. The RSI once approached 95, which is a sign of deep overbought conditions, leaving little room for movement. The negative funding rate indicates that bears are positioning themselves, and the divergence between price and fundamentals has become very serious, posing a high risk of a pullback.

This type of market control operation is usually based on this logic:

First, accumulate chips at a low position, with whales or related addresses secretly collecting chips and gradually controlling the circulating supply. Secondly, create momentum to drive prices up, using social media hype combined with contract funds to raise prices, attracting retail investors to follow in. Then, induce buying at a high position, repeatedly hitting previous highs to create the illusion of a breakout, secretly unloading and setting up a "buy wall" to confuse market participants. Finally, reverse and smash the market, after clearing the chips, use large orders to crash the market, causing prices to plummet and triggering retail investors' long positions to be liquidated, with a large amount of chips flowing back to the big players.

This tactic continues in cycles, and retail investors often end up being the last ones to catch a falling knife. Caution is the best strategy.