Cryptocurrency firm founder sentenced in wash trading case
The founder of a financial services firm known as the crypto “market maker”, Gotbit, received a sentence on charges related to a multi-year scheme to manipulate cryptocurrency trading volume.
Image by Dado Ruvic | Reuters
The founder of a financial services firm known as the crypto “market maker”, Gotbit, received a sentence on charges related to a multi-year scheme to manipulate cryptocurrency trading volume on behalf of his company's clients.
The Russian-born founder and CEO of Gotbit, Aleksei Andriunin, was sentenced to eight months in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release, according to the press release. In March 2025, he pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit market manipulation.
As a result of an #FBI Boston investigation, Gotbit Consulting, a financial services firm known in the crypto industry as a “market maker,” & its founder Aleksei Andriunin, of Russia & Portugal, were sentenced for market manipulation & fraud conspiracy. https://t.co/CNpz0BD4aE pic.twitter.com/jIFg1Z3nt6
undefined FBI Boston (@FBIBoston) June 13, 2025
Prosecutors say Gotbit and Andriunin were indicted on the same charges. Two of Gotbit’s directors, Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili, were also charged.
Allegedly, between 2018 and 2024, Gotbit participated in “wash trading” – artificially inflating the trading volume for various cryptocurrency companies, using multiple accounts to avoid detection.
These tactics were marketed to clients – Andriunin admitted to manipulating the trading price and volume of tokens for clients that included Robo Inu and Saitama. They were charged in a separate case.
“Gotbit made wash trades worth millions of dollars on behalf of clients and received tens of millions of dollars in payments from clients,” prosecutors explained.
As part of the plea, Gotbit was ordered to forfeit a total of approximately $23 million in seized crypto and sentenced to a term of probation for five years, with the condition that Gotbit cease its operations.
Andriunin was extradited from Portugal to the US.
The case is part of a wider crackdown on “wash trading”, with Gotbit being the third firm to receive such criminal charges. Earlier cases involved MyTrade in October 2024 and CLS Global FZC LLC in April 2025, which were charged with providing an unlawful wash trading service and offering illegal “volume support” services, respectively.
