I wouldn't call it "pump and dump", but more like "abandoned project" (where development came down to a halt). Those who end up having worthless coins in their wallet are doomed (bagholder). It was a nice project, but as with anything, it needed innovation to stay ahead in the game. Old projects usually lose their luster (except for a few ones) as people move on to the next big thing in crypto.

Emercoin (EMC) had its own domain name system like Namecoin, a decentralized TLS, and more. What I liked the most was the hybrid PoW + PoS consensus algorithm. Back then, the project was overhyped because of the Microsoft Azure partnership. I guess all good things come to an end. At least, the Blockchain is alive. Maybe it will get developers' attention sometime in the future?