The wikipedia article on Ponzi Schemes draws a fairly subtle distinction between a classical Ponzi schemes, economic bubbles, and pump-and-dump schemes: https:

The wikipedia article on Ponzi Schemes draws a fairly subtle distinction between a classical Ponzi schemes, economic bubbles, and pump-and-dump schemes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme Most ICOs seem more like pump-and-dump by that nomenclature, than like true Ponzi schemes, in which the Ponzi operator is directly involved in all of the transactions in and out of the system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pump_and_dump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pump_and_dump