- MyTrade founder Liu Zhou admitted running a crypto wash trading scheme.
- An undercover FBI operation exposed fake crypto trading across 60 tokens.
- Regulators are widening efforts to crack down on crypto market manipulation.
U.S. authorities fined MyTrade founder Liu Zhou $10,000 after he pleaded guilty to running a cryptocurrency market manipulation scheme involving conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud. Prosecutors said Zhou used his firm, MyTrade MM, to provide wash trading services that artificially inflated trading volumes across digital asset exchanges.
Zhou, a Canadian citizen and Chinese national, used automated trading bots to generate fake trading activity for nearly 60 cryptocurrencies before investigators shut down the operation.
Bots Drove Artificial Trading
The scheme was uncovered through an undercover FBI operation involving NexFundAI, a fake cryptocurrency project created to identify market manipulation.
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Court records show Zhou admitted MyTrade MM “does self-trades — a buy and a sell in the same second” and that its automated bots also supported “pump and dumps.” He also acknowledged that “we have to make [the other buyers] lose money in order to make profit.”
Global Enforcement Expands
As part of the settlement, MyTrade shut down its wash trading bots and discontinued its “Volume Support” service. Regulators also ordered the company to warn customers that wash trading violates U.S. law.
The case comes as regulators step up scrutiny of cryptocurrency market manipulation worldwide. In South Korea, authorities have reviewed dozens of suspected market manipulation cases involving digital assets.
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