Gotbit founder Alexey Andryunin pleads guilty to fraud using electronic means of communication and market manipulation
Prosecutors are proposing that 26-year-old Andryunin be sentenced to no more than 24 months in prison in the United States.
Author: Cheyenne Ligon | Edited by: Stephen Alpher March 20, 2025, 17:05 UTC
What you need to know:
- Gotbit founder Alexey Andryunin has reached a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors, agreeing to serve no more than 24 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to manipulate token prices.
- Andryunin pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit market manipulation, and will forfeit approximately $23 million in stablecoins.
- Gotbit, along with other companies such as CLS Global, MyTrade and ZMQuant, have been accused of providing market manipulation services.
Gotbit founder Alexey Andryunin reached a plea agreement with U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday that will see him serve no more than 24 months behind bars for his role in what prosecutors described as a “wide-ranging conspiracy” to manipulate token prices for payment customers.
Andryunin, a 26-year-old Russian, was extradited to the United States from Portugal last month and charged with two counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud — charges that together carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. In exchange for a reduced sentence, Andryunin pleaded guilty to all three charges. He also agreed to forfeit about $23 million in stablecoins related to his crimes. The government is not seeking other penalties.
In their indictment filed last October, prosecutors alleged that Gotbit effectively acts as a hired market manipulator, offering wash trading services to solvent crypto projects seeking to artificially inflate the volume and price of their tokens.
Andryunin’s guilty plea didn’t come as a complete surprise: He had never hidden Gotbit’s business activities. In a 2019 interview with CoinDesk, Andryunin — then a 20-year-old second-year student at Moscow State University — acknowledged that his business was “not entirely ethical” and detailed how he used bot trading to create enough artificial trading volume to get the project listed on CoinMarketCap.
Read more: For $15K He Will Fake Your Exchange Volume – Get You on CoinMarketCap
Gotbit is not the only market maker offering similar services. At the same time that Andryunin and his company, along with two other employees, were indicted, U.S. prosecutors also charged several other firms, including CLS Global, MyTrade, and ZMQuant, as well as several of the companies’ employees and promoters, with similarly offering market manipulation services.
The date of Andryunin's sentencing has not yet been determined.
