I warned you guys and here we are!!! NEIRO market makers arrested! 〽️〽️⚠️⛔️🚫
Shady Market Makers Caught Wash-Trading a Token Created by the Feds
The company, holding over $1.5 billion assets under management right before the start of the prosecution, faces a fine of up to $5 million or twice the gross gain or loss from the offence and forfeiture. The CEO, who was also charged, faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
In this article, we’ll give you all the information that we know as of October 10
Market Manipulation Masked as Market Making
US federal prosecutors charged four market-making firms - Gotbit, CLS Global, MyTrade, and ZM Quant - along with several crypto projects and individuals. They are accused of wash-trading cryptocurrencies and artificially inflating their prices.
Wash trading involves creating false activity in a token by repeatedly buying and selling it to inflate its value. This makes the token appear more legitimate and active than it is.
These manipulated tokens were then sold at artificially inflated prices to unsuspecting buyers. The firms also marketed the tokens and convinced exchanges to lower fees for them, further boosting their profits.Gotbit is the biggest company on this list. The market maker worked with established brands like Bonk, Hamster Kombat, Robo Inu and Neiro. At its peak, the company reached $1.5 billion in assets under management and almost $200 million in investments made through Gotbit Ventures.In 2019, the twenty-year-old CEO of Gotbit, Alexey Andryunin, spoke to CoinDesk about his practices. He then said that Gotbit was not registered in any jurisdiction because it was “not entirely ethical.” Separate criminal charges have been filed against Andryunin.In 2023, ZachXTB cracked Andryunin’s operation with the help of some leaked documents and a pitch deck that stated: “During the first minutes in the price discovery stage, we are going to push the price up to 10x to create FOMO and accumulate as much buying power as we can to reach extreme Xs and sell maximum tokens on the subsequent spike”
