MyTrade Head First to Plead Guilty Among Group of Firms Accused of Gaming Markets

The U.S. Department of Justice said it secured a guilty plea from the operator of crypto “market maker” MyTrade, which was one target in a wide-ranging sting that brought manipulation charges to multiple firms and individuals earlier this month.

Liu Zhou, 39, said to be from China and Canada, will be sentenced early next year in federal court for “the wash trading of client cryptocurrencies across multiple cryptocurrency exchanges,” according to the DOJ. Wash trading refers to the artificial driving up of asset prices by suggesting a fake level of transaction interest.

According to federal charging documents unsealed a few weeks ago, Gotbit, CLS Küresel and ZM Quant were also among those that allegedly wash traded various tokens to make it seem they had more legitimate activity than they actually did, selling some of these tokens at “artificially inflated prices” to others.

Meanwhile, another of the firms, CLS Küresel, said it’s reached out to U.S. authorities to cooperate.

“We recognize that there may be areas where we can improve our processes, and we are open to constructive dialogue with regulatory authorities,” CEO Filipp Veselov said in a statement that noted his company tries to block engagement with “U.S. clients, entities, or users.”