Founder of Crypto Financial Services Firm MyTrade Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Market Manipulation and Wire Fraud

According to the official announcement of the U.S. Department of Justice, Liu Zhou, the founder and main operator of the crypto financial services company "MyTrade", admitted to conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud. U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley is scheduled to sentence him on February 27, 2025. The announcement pointed out that MyTrade provides financial services to cryptocurrency customers through its "MyTrade MM" website and online application. These services include wash trading of customer cryptocurrencies on multiple cryptocurrency exchanges. Wash trading is a form of fraud designed to stimulate people's interest in a certain asset, and securities laws explicitly prohibit such fraud. Earlier in early October, federal prosecutors in Boston, the United States, sued four crypto companies and 14 people, accusing Gotbit, ZM Quant, CLS Global and MyTrade and their leaders and employees, including some international arrests. Prosecutors said the action marked the "first criminal prosecution of a financial services company" related to market manipulation and false trading in the crypto industry. According to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, the four defendants agreed to plead guilty and more than $25 million in cryptocurrencies have been seized. Prosecutors allege that the crypto companies also hired market makers to “launder their tokens in exchange for compensation,” allegedly ZM Quant, Gotbit, CLS Global and MyTrade. In addition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is involved in the investigation, created its own cryptocurrency, NexFundAI, to detect misconduct. The U.S. SEC filed a civil lawsuit against ZM Quant, Gotbit and CLS Global and nine individuals on Wednesday.