Does Steem look like a pump and dump scheme?
No, it doesn’t. Why? Because of how actively it is being developed and used.
Pump and dump schemes are all about marketing and little in the way of development. Where STEEM really sucks is in the marketing. There is very little hype and a lot of FUD, most of which is baseless or outdated information. There are dozens if not hundreds of coins out there that have little development but a lot of shilling. Steem is one of the most high-traffic blockchains out there. Its market cap is ridiculously small compared to the utility of the chain. Most of that traffic is not even bots or gambling apps but people writing blog posts, comments, upvoting, downvoting, transferring coins and playing games like Splinterlands.