The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on June 13 that Gotbit Consulting LLC, a cryptocurrency-focused financial firm based in Russia and Portugal, has been sentenced for engaging in a long-running fraudulent scheme to fabricate market activity. The sentencing, handed down in a federal court in Boston, requires Gotbit to dissolve and cease all operations over the next five years. The company was also compelled to hand over a significant cache of digital assets. According to the DOJ:

As part of its criminal resolution, Gotbit was ordered to forfeit a total of approximately $23 million in seized cryptocurrency. The court also sentenced Gotbit to a term of probation for five years, during which time Gotbit shall cease to exist or operate.

The company’s founder and CEO, Aleksei Andriunin, aged 26, was sentenced to eight months in prison and one year of supervised release. He had earlier pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy charges in March. Andriunin was extradited to the U.S. after being arrested in Portugal in October 2024.

The DOJ revealed that Gotbit’s core business involved manipulating token activity metrics between 2018 and 2024 to inflate the appearance of market demand. The manipulation centered around wash trading techniques, which simulate trading volume by repeatedly buying and selling the same assets through different accounts. In a past interview, Andriunin explained how his code helped clients get listed on visibility-boosting platforms like CoinMarketCap and gain access to larger exchanges.

Federal prosecutors emphasized the scope of the misconduct, pointing to Gotbit’s work with clients like Robo Inu and Saitama—companies whose executives face separate charges. The firm’s practices included trading cryptocurrencies in patterns designed to evade detection while mimicking legitimate activity. A DOJ statement underscored the extent of the operation:

Gotbit made wash trades worth millions of dollars on behalf of clients and received tens of millions of dollars in payments from clients.

Gotbit is the third digital asset market maker to be penalized as part of a broader crackdown, with previous actions targeting Mytrade and CLS Global. A related Securities and Exchange Commission civil case is ongoing.

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