I had some token that I received from airdrop. It got pumped few days ago, it was apparently an artificial pump as there was HUGE gap between bids and asks.
I have seen that and indeed you are right these are artificial pumps.
Whoever pumped this used to buy some orders from asks field, daily.
They do this just to make the price of the token feel like its getting big.
To my sheer stupidity, I directly placed the order without realizing that it's market order as default. My order got executed immediately.
Yeah that's unfortunate but I would never want to play with the market when such pumps are going on because they can always dump the market in a small span too so not the worst mistake you made.
I usually don't hold airdrop coins but a few I do that are listed on small exchanges, I always see the pump and dump things going with them.