MyTrade Founder Fined $10,000 for Running Massive Crypto Wash Trading Operation
Liu Zhou, the founder of MyTrade, has been fined $10,000 for operating a crypto wash trading service that artificially inflated volume on 60 cryptocurrencies. Zhou pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud in October 2024 alongside 17 co-conspirators.
The service, called 'Volume Support,' allowed clients to order daily fake trades through a dashboard on the MyTrade MM website. Bots then executed these trades, buying and selling the same asset repeatedly to create the appearance of increased volume.
Zhou was open with prospective customers about the nature of the service, stating that it could be used for pump and dumps to draw in other buyers. He claimed that 'we have to make [the other buyers] lose money in order to make profit.' The FBI built a token called NexFundAI to investigate MyTrade MM's market-making services.
Zhou's plea agreement required MyTrade MM to stop selling Volume Support and deactivate the bots behind it. The firm was also ordered to post a notice on its website stating that volume support is 'a form of wash trading and illegal under the laws of the United States.'