Aleksei Andriunin, the founder of crypto hedge fund and market maker Gotbit, has been extradited from Portugal to the U.S. to face charges of market manipulation and wire fraud conspiracy. Andriunin was arrested on Oct. 8 by Portuguese authorities and transferred to the U.S. on Oct. 25. He appeared in a Boston federal court and was ordered to remain detained, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

His indictment, alongside Gotbit directors Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili, was issued by a federal grand jury on Oct. 31. The case stems from an FBI sting operation involving the NexFundAI (NEXF) "trap token," designed to expose fraudulent trading practices in the crypto space. Gotbit allegedly provided market-making services through software that facilitated wash trading—artificially inflating token trading volumes to deceive investors and secure exchange listings.

Authorities claim Kedrov and Jalili promoted these deceptive tactics, even admitting in a 2019 interview to using strategies that concealed wash trades on public blockchains. Between 2018 and 2024, Gotbit reportedly made "tens of millions of dollars" through these illicit practices, with Andriunin allegedly funneling a portion of the funds into his personal Binance account.

If convicted, Andriunin faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud, along with a hefty fine. The market manipulation conspiracy charge carries an additional five-year sentence. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a separate fraud lawsuit against Gotbit and Kedrov in October, further escalating the crackdown on crypto market manipulation.