The FBI launched a coin that is more reliable than half the projects in the crypto space.

📄Full Article· Automatically extracted by trafilaturaGemini 翻譯2894 words

The FBI used the fake token NexFundAI as bait to successfully indict 28 market manipulators, exposing the most rampant wash trading industry chain in the crypto circle. (Context: The FBI's own monitoring system was hacked! Did the Chinese hacker group "Salt Typhoon" breach Trump's privacy?) (Background: The FBI Director admitted to paying for "location data" to track U.S. citizens, sparking accusations of violating the Fourth Amendment.) The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Two years ago, FBI agents posed as the founding team of an investment project at the intersection of "AI and finance." They launched a token called NexFundAI on Ethereum, complete with an official website, whitepaper, and business plan, looking no different from any legitimate project on the market. Then, they approached market makers. One of the functions of a market maker is sometimes to help project teams boost their trading volume. In industry jargon, this is called "volume support." FBI undercover agents contacted several well-known market makers in the industry one by one, stating bluntly: We have a new project and need someone to help build up the trading volume. According to the indictment released by the DOJ, every single one of them said, "Sure." No one asked if the project was compliant, no one asked if the token had any real utility, and no one asked if doing so was illegal. According to court documents released by the DOJ, four market makers—Gotbit, ZM Quant, CLS Global, and MyTrade—all accepted the order. When meeting with an undercover agent, the founder of one of these firms spoke into a recording device, calling himself a "mastermind." He explained in detail how his company used bots to place simultaneous buy and sell orders to create fake trading volume, and how to make the K-line look like a rollercoaster to lure retail investors in. Then he said something that the FBI recorded word for word. As cited by Cointelegraph from the indictment, he said: We have to make them lose money so we can make money. "They" refers to retail investors. The operation was codenamed Operation Token Mirrors. According to a DOJ announcement on October 9, 2024, the first 18 people were indicted, and over $25 million in crypto assets were seized. According to an IRS announcement on March 30 of this year, a second batch of 10 people were indicted, three of whom were extradited from Singapore to the U.S. Two years, three continents, 28 people. This is the largest market manipulation enforcement action in cryptocurrency history. And it is not over yet. How do these market makers operate? According to the indictment released by the DOJ, Gotbit founder Andriunin maintained a spreadsheet within the company with two columns side-by-side: "Created Volume" and "Market Volume." In other words, one column was the fake volume they created themselves, and the other was the real trading occurring in the market. When this person was interviewed by CoinDesk in 2019, he was a sophomore at Moscow State University. At 20 years old, he was already explaining to the camera in detail how he wrote code to create fake volume and how he helped clients get their tokens onto the CoinMarketCap trending list. According to the original CoinDesk article, he admitted the business was "not entirely ethical." After the interview aired, he didn't receive any subpoenas; instead, he picked up five new clients. By the time he was arrested in 2024, Gotbit had been operating for six years, serving projects globally. According to the DOJ's sentencing announcement, Andriunin was ultimately sentenced to 8 months in prison, and Gotbit was ordered to be dissolved, with approximately $23 million in crypto assets confiscated. Gotbit was not the cheapest. According to a quote from another market maker disclosed in the indictment, the cost to generate $1 million in daily trading volume is about $200. As cited by Cointelegraph from court documents, ZM Quant employees explained to an undercover FBI agent on a recorded call: "We use one thousand to two thousand wallets, trading ten times an hour, or ten times a minute, to reach the target trading volume." The cost per trade is about $3. CLS Global was even more thorough. According to SEC investigation documents, this UAE-registered company used 30 wallets to execute 740 wash trades, creating nearly $600,000 in fake volume, accounting for 98% of the total trading volume of the FBI's fake token, NexFundAI. Market makers are tools; the people who hire them are the protagonists. According to the DOJ indictment, the biggest client exposed by this FBI sting operation was Sait

Data Status✓ Full text extractedRead Original (動區 BlockTempo)

🔍Historical Similar Events· Keyword + Asset Matching1 items

2026-05-22

Amazon, Meta, and the FBI all have access to a private intelligence-sharing network: How Seattle Shield is shaping the era of AI mass surveillance

Similarity 120%關鍵字 fbi同分類 zh

💡 Currently matching via keywords + symbols (MVP) · Will be upgraded to embedding semantic search later

Raw Information

ID:42d8f2e04a

Source:動區 BlockTempo

Published:2026-05-21 14:25:10

Category:zh_news · Export Category zh

Symbols:Unspecified

Community Votes:+0 / −0 · ⭐ 0 Important · 💬 0 Comments