Gotbit Consulting LLC and its founder, Aleksei Andriunin, were sentenced for using wash trading to falsely inflate the trading volume of meme coins on behalf of clients. The firm was ordered to forfeit $23 million in seized cryptocurrency, while Andriunin received an eight-month prison sentence followed by a year of supervised release. Charged in 2024 with market manipulation and conspiracy as part of a federal crackdown, Gotbit admitted to engaging in manipulative trades to artificially increase trading volume and prices for multiple cryptocurrencies, including Robo Inu and Saitama. The DOJ noted that Andriunin created software to execute trades between controlled accounts to simulate legitimate volume. This case marks Gotbit as the third crypto market maker convicted in connection with wash trading violations.

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