U.S. Charges Crypto Market Makers With Market Manipulation; Taiwanese Executive Implicated

Wash trading involves the same party repeatedly buying and selling an asset to create the illusion of trading volume, followed by a pump-and-dump scheme that leaves retail investors holding overpriced tokens. The U.S. Justice Department, FBI and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation pursued cross-border market-making services. In an October 2024 operation, the FBI created its own NexFundAI token for the first time as part of an undercover investigation, turning the crypto market’s long-elusive fake-volume problem into a focus of criminal enforcement.

The Justice Department said on March 30, 2026, that federal grand juries in San Francisco and Oakland had charged 10 foreign executives and employees from Gotbit, Vortex, Antier and Contrarian in three cases. Three defendants arrested in Singapore were extradited and appeared in court in Oakland, while more than $1 million in crypto assets was seized. Antoine Tsao, Gotbit’s Taiwanese business development manager, pleaded guilty on June 2, 2025, and was sentenced.