1/ Do not be persuaded by an altcoin’s publicity campaign, no matter how ‘official’ and ‘substantive’ it may seem.
Because investors often provide the coin founders with capital, they can afford to ‘dazzle’ the public with all sorts of marketing gimmicks.
2/ Risk of Exchanges
As of this writing, the crypto industry is far less regulated than traditional banking is.
This is good, since government regulation hampers innovation and growth.
3/ However, it also means that crypto exchanges are less likely to receive a bailout in the event that they are running on fractional reserves.
4/ This means that they are vulnerable to bank runs, in which case there is no guarantee that you will be able to retrieve your assets that are on the exchange.
Fortunately, exchanges are not necessary to own cryptocurrency.
5/ The Solution
The solution to both avoiding pump-and-dump crypto schemes and the risk of having your crypto assets frozen on an exchange is the same: only buy Bitcoin, and only hold it in your own wallet.
6/ Trezor and Ledger both offer excellent, user-friendly hard wallet products.
Do not wait to go Bitcoin-only and off of exchanges.
If the FTX implosion taught us anything, it is that the world of non-Bitcoin can collapse without a moment’s notice.