The founder of crypto financial services firm MyTrade, Liu Zhou, has been fined $10,000 by a U.S. federal court in Boston after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud. The case arose from MyTrade’s “volume support services,” which used automated bots to execute wash trades and artificially inflate trading volumes for nearly 60 cryptocurrencies.
According to prosecutors, Zhou’s platform, MyTrade MM, marketed to token issuers seeking to create a false appearance of liquidity and investor interest. An undercover FBI operation exposed the scheme, which involved generating fake trading activity across multiple digital asset exchanges. In a civil enforcement action, the court imposed the fine, noting that such manipulative practices violate anti-fraud provisions under U.S. securities laws.
While the $10,000 penalty is relatively modest, legal experts say it establishes an important precedent in the regulator’s crackdown on crypto market manipulation. The case highlights ongoing scrutiny of wash trading, which remains a persistent issue in thinly traded digital assets. Regulators are increasingly deploying advanced surveillance tools to detect similar schemes.
