Catenaa, Sunday, March 09, 2025 – Aleksei Andriunin, founder and CEO of crypto firm Gotbit, has been extradited to the United States to face charges of manipulating cryptocurrency markets last week.
The Russian national was indicted by a federal grand jury for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit market manipulation.
He was arrested in Portugal last October.
According to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, Andriunin and other individuals are accused of creating cryptocurrency firms, falsely representing their tokens, and executing wash trades to inflate trading volumes and artificially raise token prices.
These actions were allegedly performed to help cryptocurrencies get listed on major platforms, including CoinMarketCap.
The charges stem from a 2019 interview in which Andriunin purportedly described developing a code to manipulate cryptocurrency markets.
In addition to the allegations, Andriunin faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, along with fines, restitution, and forfeiture. The U.S. prosecution of Andriunin comes amid shifting regulatory attitudes toward the crypto industry.
The charges against Gotbit and other implicated firms, including ZM Quant, CLS Global, and MyTrade, are part of an ongoing investigation into cryptocurrency market manipulation.
