A prominent cryptocurrency market maker, Gotbit Consulting LLC, has been sentenced in federal court for criminal charges related to manipulating digital asset trading volumes, as reported in a recent press release. Aleksei Andriunin, the firm’s founder and CEO, has been sentenced to eight months in prison and one year of supervised release for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and market manipulation.
Andriunin, a Russian-Portuguese national, was extradited to the U.S. from Portugal after his arrest in October 2024. Prosecutors revealed that Gotbit orchestrated a sophisticated scheme between 2018 and 2024 involving “wash trading” to create fake trades and inflate market activity for various token issuers, including Robo Inu and Saitama.
Forfeiture and Corporate Shutdown
As part of a plea agreement, Gotbit has been sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to forfeit approximately $23 million in seized cryptocurrency. The firm, based outside the U.S., must cease all operations. Gotbit’s services included generating artificial trading volume to boost client tokens’ visibility on platforms like CoinMarketCap and secure listings on top exchanges.
In a 2019 interview, Andriunin admitted to developing wash trading software to facilitate such tactics while evading blockchain detection.
Crackdown on Market Abuse
Gotbit is the third market-making firm prosecuted for wash trading since 2024. Previous cases involved MyTrade and CLS Global, caught in an undercover federal operation targeting market abuse in the digital asset sector. Gotbit’s directors, Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili, are still under indictment, with ongoing criminal proceedings.
Additionally, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has initiated a civil enforcement action accusing Gotbit of securities law violations. The criminal case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher J. Markham and David M. Holcomb, with asset forfeiture managed by AUSA Carol Head of the Asset Recovery Unit. The FBI’s Boston Division led the investigation.
