12 entries tagged “market-manipulation”.
A 2017–2018 ICO for the VERI token that the SEC said raised ~$14.8M via false statements and that founder Reginald Middleton manipulated on secondary markets. Middleton and Veritaseum settled with the SEC in 2019 for ~$9.5M and a permanent digital-securities bar.
A prominent crypto 'market maker' that the U.S. DOJ says ran wash-trading/market-manipulation services (2018–2024) to fake trading volume for token clients (including Saitama and Robo Inu) and win exchange listings. Charged in the FBI's 'Operation Token Mirrors'; founder Aleksei Andriunin pleaded guilty in 2025 and Gotbit forfeited $23M.
Founder of Veritaseum and its VERI token. The SEC alleged he ran a fraudulent ICO and manipulated VERI's price; he settled in 2019 for ~$9.5M and a permanent bar from digital-securities offerings, without admitting or denying the allegations.
Former chief revenue officer and top lawyer of Celsius Network. He pleaded guilty in 2023 to four counts including manipulating the price of Celsius's CEL token, cooperated against CEO Alex Mashinsky, and was sentenced in 2026 to time served.
Russian founder and CEO of crypto market maker Gotbit. He pleaded guilty in 2025 to conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud for running wash-trading services that faked token trading volume; sentenced to eight months (time served), with Gotbit forfeiting $23M.
RaveDAO's $RAVE token spiked thousands of percent (from ~$0.25 to a peak around $19–28) in under a week in 2026, then collapsed ~98%. On-chain investigators including ZachXBT alleged a coordinated pump-and-dump that lured short sellers with ~$42M of inflows to Bitget before a squeeze and dump; Binance and Bitget said they were investigating market-manipulation claims.
An 'AI' meme coin ($SIREN) whose price was widely flagged as a manipulated pump-and-dump in 2026. After a rally of roughly 6,800% on a still-unreleased product, on-chain analysts found the supply heavily concentrated in a handful of wallets; a single whale then dumped ~670M tokens (~92% of circulating supply) for about $64.8M, crashing the price ~95% in a week.
A dog-themed crypto token (Saitama Inu, plus the related SaitaRealty) that the SEC and DOJ charged in October 2024 as a fraudulent, manipulated securities offering. Promoters allegedly hyped a 'Saitama ecosystem' while secretly dumping holdings and hiring market makers (Gotbit, ZM Quant) to fake volume.
A former Saitama executive (alias 'Mkay Saitama') charged by the SEC and DOJ in October 2024 over the manipulation of the Saitama Inu and SaitaRealty tokens. A UK/India resident, he has been fighting U.S. extradition.
The trader behind the October 2022 ~$110M Mango Markets exploit, which he called a 'highly profitable trading strategy.' A jury convicted him of fraud and market manipulation in 2024, but a federal judge vacated those convictions in May 2025; prosecutors appealed.
A Solana DEX whose MNGO token was manipulated by trader Avraham Eisenberg in Oct 2022 to borrow ~$110M against an inflated position. He returned ~$67M; a 2024 jury conviction was vacated on appeal in 2025 (venue + no material misstatement), which prosecutors appealed.
An AI trading-terminal token launched via Binance Alpha in Oct 2025 that surged to a multi-billion-dollar FDV — briefly among the largest crypto assets by valuation — before a ~77% crash on Jun 2, 2026. ZachXBT alleges insiders, led by founder Vova Sadkov, control over 95% of supply and ran a coordinated market-maker pump. LAB has not publicly responded; no charges have been reported.
