Crypto Market Maker Gotbit Sentenced for 6 Year Scheme

Gotbit Consulting LLC, a prominent cryptocurrency market maker, was sentenced in federal court for criminal charges related to a multi-year scheme to manipulate digital asset trading volumes. The firm’s 26-year-old founder and CEO, Aleksei Andriunin, was 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 from Portugal to the U.S. earlier this year after his arrest in October 2024.

Prosecutors allege that Gotbit orchestrated a sophisticated scheme between 2018 and 2024 that involved “wash trading,” a practice where multiple accounts are used to create fake trades and inflate apparent market activity. This scheme was conducted on behalf of various token issuers, including Robo Inu and Saitama. As part of a plea agreement, Gotbit was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to forfeit approximately $23 million in seized cryptocurrency. The firm, which operated outside the United States but worked with numerous U.S.-accessible crypto platforms, is now required to cease all operations.

Gotbit’s services included generating artificial trading volume to help client tokens gain visibility on platforms such as CoinMarketCap and achieve listings on top-tier exchanges. In a 2019 interview, Andriunin openly admitted to developing wash trading software that enabled such tactics while avoiding blockchain detection. Gotbit is the third market-making firm to be prosecuted for wash trading since 2024, following earlier cases involving MyTrade and CLS Global, both of which were ensnared in an undercover federal operation aimed at exposing market abuse in the digital asset sector.

Gotbit’s directors, Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili, remain under indictment, with criminal proceedings ongoing. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched a parallel 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 handled by AUSA Carol Head of the Asset Recovery Unit. The FBI’s Boston Division led the investigation.

This case highlights the ongoing efforts by regulatory authorities to crack down on market manipulation and fraud in the cryptocurrency sector. The sentencing of Gotbit and its founder serves as a stark reminder of the legal consequences for engaging in such activities. The shutdown of Gotbit and the forfeiture of its assets send a clear message to other market makers and token issuers about the importance of adhering to legal and ethical standards in the digital asset market.