ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, as the U.S. presidential election approaches, the behavior of top bettors on Polymarket has raised concerns about the potential manipulation of prediction markets. Former President Donald Trump's odds of winning the 2024 U.S. presidential election are rising, largely influenced by a Polymarket user "Fredi9999," a major bettor holding over $20 million in pro-Trump wagers.Alex Momot, founder and CEO of Peanut Trade Company, stated that Trump's expanding lead raises questions, as it seems unrelated to events in the real world that could explain shifts in public opinion.Currently, Trump's odds on Polymarket have risen to 60.2%. Analysts point out that this market dynamic could influence public perceptions of the election outcome and emphasize the need to assess the manipulation of prediction markets.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, video game developer FractureLabs has filed a lawsuit against the well-known cryptocurrency market maker Jump Trading in the federal court in Chicago, accusing it of fraud and deception by manipulating the price of the DIO token.It is reported that FractureLabs originally planned to launch the DIO token on the Huobi exchange (now renamed HTX) in 2021 to raise funds. The company hired Jump Trading as the market maker for DIO and lent 10 million tokens to its subsidiary, while sending 6 million tokens to HTX for sale.The lawsuit claims that Jump Trading systematically liquidated DIO positions, causing the token price to drop to about 0.5 cents, creating millions of dollars in profits for itself. Subsequently, Jump repurchased about $53,000 worth of tokens at a significant discount and returned them to FractureLabs, after which it terminated the market maker agreement.

ChainCatcher news, South Korean lawmaker Min Byoung-dug plans to criticize AVAIL as the second "Hamburger Coin" that raises questions during the parliamentary audit. Note: Hamburger Coin is a virtual asset issued overseas and traded domestically in South Korea, while the local one is Kimchi Coin.The lawmaker has requested data on abnormal trading of AVAIL on Bithumb and is investigating its sudden surge upon listing, potential price manipulation, and the effectiveness of customer protection measures at the exchange.The Financial Supervisory Service, which is investigating this incident, declined to comment and stated: "Mentioning specific tokens or the progress of the investigation may affect market prices, so the principle is that the case is handled and disclosed thoroughly."

ChainCatcher News, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Justice (DOJ) jointly filed lawsuits on October 9 against four cryptocurrency companies suspected of fraud and market manipulation, including Gotbit Consulting, ZM Quant Investment, and CLS Global. These manipulated tokens were then sold at artificially inflated prices to unsuspecting buyers. These companies also promoted these tokens and persuaded exchanges to lower fees, further increasing profits.Gotbit is the largest company on this list. This market maker collaborated with well-known brands such as Bonk, Neiro, Hamster Kombat, and Robo Inu. At its peak, the company managed assets totaling $1.5 billion and made nearly $200 million in investments through Gotbit Ventures. Gotbit now faces a maximum fine of $5 million or twice the amount of illegal gains or losses, as well as asset forfeiture. The CEO, who is also facing charges, could face up to 20 years in prison.It is reported that in 2019, Gotbit's 20-year-old CEO Alexey Andryunin told CoinDesk about his practices: Gotbit was not registered in any jurisdiction because it was "not entirely ethical." In 2023, ZachXTB uncovered Andryunin's operations with the help of some leaked documents and a promotional material that stated: "In the first few minutes of the price discovery phase, we will push the price up 10 times to create FOMO and accumulate as much buying power as possible, and sell the most tokens during the subsequent surge."

ChainCatcher news, according to a report by Reuters, Elon Musk and his electric vehicle company Tesla (TSLA.O) have successfully won the dismissal of a federal lawsuit that accused them of defrauding investors by exaggerating the value of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin and engaging in insider trading, resulting in billions of dollars in losses. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan issued this ruling on Thursday evening.Investors accused the world's richest man of profiting from trades at their expense through Twitter posts, an appearance on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" in 2021, and other promotional stunts, using multiple Dogecoin wallets controlled by him or Tesla. They also claimed that Musk deliberately inflated the price of Dogecoin by over 36,000% over two years, only to let it crash, while he and Tesla often timed their trades based on Musk's public statements and activities regarding Dogecoin.However, Hellerstein stated that Musk's tweets about "Dogecoin being the currency of the future on Earth, usable to purchase Tesla cars, or sent to the moon by his company SpaceX" were "idealized and exaggerated, not facts, and easily falsifiable," meaning that no rational investor could rely on these tweets to file a securities fraud lawsuit, and thus "could not comprehend" the market manipulation and insider trading allegations raised by the investors. Hellerstein dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. The investors initially sought $258 billion in damages and amended their complaint four times over two years. In seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, Musk's lawyers argued that his "harmless and often silly tweets" posed no issue. They also stated that there was no evidence that Musk owned two wallets for suspicious trading, nor was there evidence that he or Tesla had ever sold Dogecoin.

According to ChainCatcher, as reported by Cointelegraph, a U.S. appeals court partially overturned the dismissal of a class action lawsuit against Binance.US, which alleges that the exchange illegally manipulated the price of the HEX token. A panel of three judges from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the district court's previous dismissal of the class action, stating that plaintiff Ryan Cox's claims against Binance.US and CoinMarketCap were reasonable.Cox first filed the class action in 2021, accusing Binance Capital Management and Binance.US of artificially limiting HEX's ranking on CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency price tracking platform owned by Binance. Cox claimed this led to a lower trading price for HEX, while Binance's own cryptocurrency ranked higher. In February 2023, a district court judge initially dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that Cox failed to establish any specific connection between activities in Arizona (the state where Cox originally filed the lawsuit) and Binance.US that could link Binance.US to the manipulation of HEX.In an opinion on August 12, the judges disagreed with the district court's initial conclusion that Cox must prove there was "sufficient minimum contacts" between Binance.US and Arizona for the court to establish personal jurisdiction.Additionally, the appeals court found that Cox's lawsuit presented reasonable allegations of price manipulation against Binance.US and noted that they have been sent back for reconsideration.

ChainCatcher News, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it has charged Meta Materials Inc. and its former CEO with market manipulation, fraud, and other illegal activities.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today filed charges against Meta Materials Inc. and its former CEOs John Brda and George Palikaras. The company has agreed to resolve the SEC's charges in an administrative proceeding, while the SEC's lawsuit against Brda and Palikaras will proceed in federal district court.In a complaint filed in the Southern District of New York federal district court, the SEC alleges that Brda and Palikaras orchestrated and executed a manipulation scheme, which included the immediate issuance of preferred stock dividends prior to a merger. The complaint alleges that Brda and Palikaras informed certain investors and advisors and hinted through social media that the dividend would force short sellers to exit their positions and trigger a "short squeeze," artificially inflating the price of the company's common stock.

ChainCatcher news, according to analysis by Shield, the fundamental reason for the $19.4 million loss of UwU Lend today due to a hacker attack is a price oracle issue.Specifically, the pricing of the sUSDe asset comes from the median of multiple sources. Among them, five, namely FRAXUSDe, USDeUSDC, USDeDAI, USDecrvUSD, and GHOUSDe, were manipulated during the hacker attack.

ChainCatcher news, according to South Korean media Digital Asset, the Ministry of Justice of South Korea stated, "The Southern District Prosecutor's Office's Joint Investigation Team for Virtual Asset Crimes is working hard to crack down on the manipulation of the virtual asset market, unreported virtual asset exchanges, and virtual asset deposit fraud." The Ministry of Justice selected the PICA fraud case of 90 billion won, illegal exchange operations of 5.8 trillion won, and the Haru Invest deposit fraud case of 14 trillion won as representative examples of these crimes.The Ministry of Justice stated, "We are discussing with the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service to formulate subsidiary laws, such as the calculation method for unfair profits from unfair trading behaviors in virtual assets." He added, "We expect this will help quickly investigate unfair trading behaviors in the virtual asset market, thoroughly recover criminal proceeds, and enhance the reliability and stability of the market."

ChainCatcher news, according to sources cited by Wall Street, Binance has fired its monitoring director after discovering that DWF Labs was suspected of market manipulation.

ChainCatcher news, according to sources cited by Bloomberg, the Binance monitoring team found that DWF Labs was involved in market manipulation.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, a Manhattan jury in New York has found Mango Markets attacker Avi Eisenberg guilty of fraud and market manipulation for stealing $110 million from Mango Markets in October 2022. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian is set to sentence him on July 29. Eisenberg was arrested in Puerto Rico in December 2022 and has been charged with commodity fraud, commodity manipulation, and wire fraud. If all three charges are upheld, he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

ChainCatcher news, BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo will face a class-action lawsuit from users. U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Carter ruled that Ben Delo played a central role in a scheme to manipulate prices at the cryptocurrency exchange. This ruling came after Ben Delo's request to dismiss the lawsuit, but Judge Andrew Carter found that he played a significant role in designing the clearing system, allowing BitMEX to profit from the alleged manipulation.