US prosecutors indict four crypto market makers for price inflation

U.S. federal prosecutors on March 30 indicted four cryptocurrency market makers—Godbit, Vortex, Antier, and Contrarian—on charges of artificially inflating trading volumes and prices. According to the indictment, the defendants allegedly conspired to inflate volume and prices, causing investor losses through pump-and-dump schemes. More than $1 million in cryptocurrency has been seized to date. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the IRS Criminal Investigation division stated that their undercover investigation, which targeted illegal wash trading in the crypto industry, confirmed that the firms' illicit activities all followed a similar structure.