Crypto Pump‑And‑Dump Era Ends Here? Why DOJ’s New Indictments Should Scare Market Makers

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged ten senior staff and employees at four crypto “market‑making” firms with running fraudulent campaigns designed to pump up both the trading volume and the price of certain digital assets. An FBI Crypto-Trap The charges, announced by the DOJ on a Monday press release, include employees from the firms Gotbit, Vortex, Antier and Contrarian. Three of the defendants were taken into custody in Singapore and extradited to the United States. They appeared before a federal judge in Oakland for the first time on Monday. Two of them were CEO’s at the aforementioned companies. 10 Foreign National Executives and Employees of Four Different Cryptocurrency Financial Services Firms Are Charged by @USAO_NDCA With Orchestrating Fraud Schemes to Artificially Inflate the Trading Volume and Price of Cryptocurrencies. Three defendants, including 2 CEOs, were… — U.S. Department of Justice – International (@USDOJ_Intl) March 31, 2026 The charges arise from an