Gotbit CEO Alexey Andryunin has been arrested in Portugal at the request of the FBI and is awaiting extradition to the U.S.
🐹 It’s known that Gotbit Hedge Fund partnered with Hamster Kombat and was supposed to act as the market maker for the HMSTR token (🔽possibly causing the token to drop by -11% yesterday in light of these news).
The U.S. has charged three companies and 15 individuals with cryptocurrency fraud. Gotbit, ZM Quant, and CLS Global, along with their leaders and employees, were among the accused.
The charges have led to four arrests, five plea agreements, and the seizure of over $25 million in cryptocurrency.
I’m sure 99% of people didn’t read the Reuters article, so here’s a brief summary:
🔴 As part of the investigation, the FBI created its own token, NexFundAI, on the Ethereum blockchain and reached out to various market makers (MMs) to use their services.
🔴 On calls and in private messages with the undercover project, MM employees shared their algorithms for inflating volumes, creating multiple addresses for organic token distribution, and other techniques.
🔴The FBI interpreted all MM services as "wash trading," "fake transactions" "market manipulation" and "artificially inflating trade volume" leading to charges that could result in up to 20 years in prison for the young individuals involved. 🤯
