聯準會因人為抬高 Memecoin 甚至 BTC 價格而逮捕「加密貨幣」做市商

少數「加密」做市商 (MM) 被指控犯有市場操縱和欺詐罪，因為他們人為抬高了少數 memecoin 的法定價格，還有——哎呀！ ——強大的 BTC。

A group of ‘crypto’ market makers (MMs) have been charged with market manipulation and fraud for artificially inflating the fiat price of a handful of memecoins—but also, gasp!—the mighty BTC.

一群「加密貨幣」做市商 (MM) 被指控犯有市場操縱和欺詐罪，因為他們人為抬高了少數 memecoin 的法定價格，而且，還有強大的 BTC。

On October 9, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced charges against 14 individuals and four entities for “widespread fraud and manipulation in the cryptocurrency markets.” The feds seized over $25 million worth of tokens, as well as “multiple” trading bots used in the wash trading of certain tokens, while around 60 different tokens “have been deactivated.”

10 月 9 日，美國馬薩諸塞州地區檢察官辦公室宣布對 14 名個人和 4 家實體提出「在加密貨幣市場中廣泛欺詐和操縱」的指控。聯邦政府查獲了價值超過 2500 萬美元的代幣，以及用於某些代幣清洗交易的「多個」交易機器人，同時大約 60 種不同的代幣「已停用」。

Operation Token Mirrors got help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS:CI) unit, and elements of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), along with agencies in Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Token Mirrors 行動得到了美國聯邦調查局 (FBI)、美國國稅局刑事調查 (IRS:CI) 部門、國家加密貨幣執法小組 (NCET) 以及葡萄牙和英國機構的幫助。

Four of the companies—Lillian Finance, Robo Inu Finance, Saitama, and VZZM—were ‘crypto’ firms that issued and promoted tokens. The MMs—Gotbit Consulting, CLS Global FZC, MyTrade MM, and ZM Quant—are accused of artificially pumping the trading volume of these tokens to give the impression of retail trader interest that would lure in actual retail traders on whom to dump these worthless coins.

其中四家公司——Lillian Finance、Robo Inu Finance、Saitama 和 VZZM——是發行和推廣代幣的「加密」公司。 MM——Gotbit Consulting、CLS Global FZC、MyTrade MM 和ZM Quant——被指控人為地提高這些代幣的交易量，給人留下零售交易者感興趣的印象，從而引誘真正的零售交易者向他們傾銷這些毫無價值的代幣。

Incredibly, three of the MMs—CLS Global, MyTrade, and ZM Quant—stand accused of wash trading on behalf of a company/token that the FBI created for the express purpose of giving the MMs something to artificially pump.

令人難以置信的是，其中三個 MM（CLS Global、MyTrade 和 ZM Quant）被指控代表 FBI 創建的公司/代幣進行虛假交易，其明確目的是為 MM 提供人為拉高的東西。

The charged individuals face up to a couple of decades behind bars if convicted on charges of market manipulation, fraud, and conspiracy (to commit wire fraud/market manipulation/money laundering/conduct an unlicensed money transmitting business).

如果因市場操縱、詐欺和共謀（實施電匯詐欺/市場操縱/洗錢/進行未經許可的資金傳輸業務）等罪名被定罪，被指控的個人將面臨長達數十年的監禁。

We’ll get to the gory details in a second, but it’s worth noting that these indictments confirm the suspicions that have always surrounded the speculative token sector. Many of the centralized digital asset exchanges that gave these MMs free rein to ply their dark arts have featured on this site in less than savory situations, and they live down to their bad reputations in these indictments.

我們將在一秒鐘內了解血淋淋的細節，但值得注意的是，這些起訴書證實了一直圍繞著投機性代幣行業的懷疑。許多中心化的數位資產交易所讓這些MM可以自由發揮他們的黑暗藝術，但在這個網站上卻出現了一些不那麼令人愉快的情況，他們在這些指控中名聲不佳。

Also, while most of the headlines surrounding these charges focus on the relatively inconsequential memecoins that were manipulated, the indictments cite instances of BTC trading volume being boosted by a factor of 16 over its legitimate volume. That may wound the delicate sensibilities of the BTC maximalists/snowflakes who choose to believe their utility-devoid token is above these shenanigans, but as they say at the poker table, read ‘em and weep.

此外，雖然圍繞這些指控的大多數頭條新聞都集中在相對無關緊要的被操縱的模因幣上，但起訴書列舉了 BTC 交易量比其合法交易量增加 16 倍的例子。這可能會傷害比特幣最大化主義者/雪花主義者的敏感情感，他們選擇相信他們的無實用性代幣高於這些惡作劇，但正如他們在撲克桌上所說的那樣，讀到它們並哭泣。

Gotbit got bit

戈比特被咬了

According to its indictment, the Belize-registered Gotbit promoted “purportedly legitimate services” on its website while “privately offering clients illegal services including market manipulation.”

根據起訴書，在伯利茲註冊的 Gotbit 在其網站上宣傳“據稱合法的服務”，同時“私下向客戶提供包括市場操縱在內的非法服務”。

In February 2022, Gotbit execs Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili, Robo Inu’s Vy Pham, and other unidentified co-conspirators created a private chatroom on the Telegram messaging platform.

2022 年 2 月，Gotbit 高管 Fedor Kedrov 和 Qawi Jalili、Robo Inu 的 Vy Pham 以及其他身份不明的同謀在 Telegram 訊息平台上創建了一個私人聊天室。

Gotbit is accused of artificially inflating the trading volume of the Robo Inu token on the Bitmart exchange. Gotbit staff discussed boosting the token’s volume on the exchange to “above 1.1mil daily,” with one staffer warning against raising the volume by too much too quickly “because CMC itself can detect suspicious activity in the market and exclude volumes from bitmart.”

Gotbit 被指控人為提高 Bitmart 交易所 Robo Inu 代幣的交易量。 Gotbit 工作人員討論了將交易所代幣的交易量提高到“每日110 萬以上”，一名工作人員警告不要將交易量提高得太快，“因為CMC 本身可以檢測市場中的可疑活動，並將交易量從Bitmart 中排除。

Similar discussions continued through the spring of 2024, including Pham telling Gotbit staff that “the basic goal right now is to create that FOMO [fear of missing out] by looking as organic volume.” Jalili responded affirmatively, saying, “we have good connections with Bitmart.”

類似的討論一直持續到 2024 年春天，其中 Pham 告訴 Gotbit 員工，“目前的基本目標是通過將其視為有機量來創造 FOMO（害怕錯過）。” Jalili給出了肯定的回應，稱「我們與Bitmart有著良好的聯繫」。

When Pham requested an “official agreement” detailing the manipulation, Jalili reminded Pham that certain jurisdictions are “kinda regulated […] we’re not going to be having those things very clearly stated.”

當範要求一份詳細說明操縱行為的“官方協議”時，賈利利提醒範，某些司法管轄區“受到某種監管[……]我們不會非常清楚地說明這些事情。”

Nonetheless, a contract was duly drawn up, stipulating that Gotbit would perform the desired tasks for which it would receive $15,000 for three months of activity on a single exchange, plus 20% of the net profit generated by the fraudulent trades, and 2% of the token liquidation generated.

儘管如此，合約還是正式起草，規定Gotbit 將執行所需的任務，在單一交易所三個月的活動中將獲得15,000 美元，加上欺詐交易產生的淨利潤的20%，以及欺詐交易產生的淨利潤的2%。

An FBI agent’s affidavit details an August 2019 YouTube interview in which Gotbit founder/CEO Aleksei Andriunin said he’d developed code to artificially inflate the trading volume of tokens to have these tokens graduate to trading on larger exchanges.

FBI 特工的宣誓書詳細介紹了2019 年8 月YouTube 的一次採訪，其中Gotbit 創始人/首席執行官Aleksei Andriunin 表示，他開發了代碼來人為誇大代幣交易量，以使這些代幣逐漸在更大的交易所進行交易。

Later, Gotbit performed similar pumps for the Saitama token on the Lbank and XT.com exchanges, helping to boost Saitama’s overall market cap to around $7.5 billion.

隨後，Gotbit 在 Lbank 和 XT.com 交易所對埼玉代幣進行了類似的拉高，幫助將埼玉的整體市值提升至 75 億美元左右。

Saitama drama

埼玉劇

The Saitama indictment contains Telegram messages from July 2021 in which Saitama manager Russell Armand discusses plans to “create an illusion of massive buys and new holders as [Telegram] gets flooded” that will “incite ppl to buy more.”

埼玉縣起訴書包含2021 年7 月的Telegram 信息，其中埼玉縣經理Russell Armand 討論了“隨著[Telegram] 氾濫而製造大量購買和新持有者的假象”的計劃，這將“煽動人們購買更多產品」。

Armand instructed other Saitama executives involved in this deception to buy “2-

阿曼德指示其他參與這次欺騙的埼玉高管購買「2-