Alexey Andryunin sentenced to eight months for manipulating the cryptocurrency market

Founder of the Gotbit platform, Aleksey Andryunin, has received a prison sentence for participating in a large-scale scheme of fictitious trading operations. The court proceedings, which lasted several months, resulted in an official conviction under American law. This case has become one of the significant incidents in the history of cryptocurrency investigations.

From Arrest to Plea

The 26-year-old Russian and Portuguese citizen was detained in Lisbon in October 2024. After several months, in February of the following year, U.S. authorities secured his extradition to the United States. By March 2024, Andryunin had signed a plea agreement in the federal court of Massachusetts. The document charged him with internet fraud and market manipulation of cryptocurrencies.

Fake Operations Scheme

According to the U.S. prosecutor’s statement, in a 2019 interview, Aleksey Andryunin described the platform’s operation mechanism. He explained that he developed code to artificially increase trading volumes by creating the illusion of market activity. This system allowed Gotbit to rank among the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, including on CoinMarketCap.

Platform employees actively promoted this method among potential clients, explaining the benefits of using multiple trading accounts. This approach enabled them to hide illegal operations on the open blockchain and avoid automatic detection by systems. For conducting fake trades worth several million dollars, the company collected tens of millions in commissions from its clients.

Court Sentence and Activity Ban

The sentence includes eight months of imprisonment for Andryunin. In addition to personal punishment, Gotbit itself was banned from conducting commercial activities for five years. This means the platform will no longer be able to operate during this period.

The case demonstrates the seriousness with which U.S. law enforcement approaches investigations in the cryptocurrency sector and the inevitability of punishment for market manipulation.