Alexey Andryunin, CEO of crypto market-making firm Gotbit, has been extradited to the United States after being arrested in Portugal on October 6, 2024, at the request of U.S. authorities. His arrest was part of broader charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Gotbit and three other companies—ZM Quant, CLS Global, and MyTrade.

The DOJ has charged Andryunin with fraud and conspiracy to commit market manipulation, crimes that together carry a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

According to court documents, Andryunin developed software code used to perform “wash trading,” artificially inflating cryptocurrency trading volumes. This scheme enabled tokens to appear prominently on platforms like CoinMarketCap and facilitated their listing on crypto exchanges. Investigators claim that between 2018 and 2024, Gotbit employees utilized multiple accounts to conceal manipulated blockchain data.

Authorities allege that Andryunin transferred part of the proceeds to his personal account on Binance, while Gotbit reportedly earned tens of millions of dollars through this scheme. Prosecutors note this marks the first criminal case involving market manipulation in the cryptocurrency industry.

Earlier in Russia, police detained four individuals suspected of operating Rapidpay, an illegal payment system used by cryptocurrency exchange services.