Spoofing
Placing large fake orders to manipulate price perception, then canceling before they execute — an illegal-in-stocks tactic common in crypto.
Spoofing is placing large buy or sell orders with no intention of filling them, to create a false impression of supply or demand and nudge other traders, then canceling once price has moved. The visible walls spoofers create manipulate sentiment and can trigger reactions the spoofer profits from.
It’s illegal in regulated securities and futures markets and has drawn prosecutions, but crypto’s fragmented, less-regulated venues make it common. For ordinary traders, the defense is simply not trusting order-book appearances at face value — treat large, conveniently-placed walls as possible bluffs, and rely on executed volume and price action over displayed orders that can vanish in an instant.