ChainCatcher news, DefiTuna founder Dhirk announced via X platform that he has refunded $30,000 and severed ties with investor Kelsier due to Kelsier's alleged involvement in market manipulation.Dhirk stated: "Everyone internally knows there is a huge network of influencers who, with the support of Ben's leadership team, have made millions from the Meteora community."According to SolanaFloor, the DefiTuna founder claimed that Kelsier was involved in a well-orchestrated scheme to extract large amounts of funds from the meme coin launchpad platform M3M3. M3M3 was initially packaged as an independent platform but was actually controlled by Meteora co-founder Ben; projects launching on M3M3 were required to allocate token shares to Kelsier's team; DefiTuna co-founder Vlad was passively involved, mistakenly believing the collaboration was legitimate. It is estimated that the Kelsier team has harvested over $200 million in user funds through projects like AIAI, MATES, ENRON, MELANIA, and LIBRA.

ChainCatcher message, TRON founder Justin Sun posted on X: "XCN (Chain) is currently undergoing serious market manipulation. They are using high leverage and contracts, which could cause serious harm to many exchange users. I advise exchanges to closely monitor this risk. We will report their illegal activities to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for further investigation."

ChainCatcher news, according to financefeeds, Coinbase has been sued by Hong Kong-based BiT Global Digital Limited for over $1 billion after deciding to delist Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), accusing it of market manipulation and anti-competitive behavior.BiT Global alleges that Coinbase undermined wBTC to promote its own competing product, cbBTC, resulting in financial losses and diminishing consumer confidence in wBTC. The lawsuit claims violations of the Sherman Act and false statements regarding wBTC's compliance with listing standards, as well as predatory behavior.BiT Global's legal team stated that Coinbase's actions threaten market fairness. The lawsuit seeks over $1 billion in damages and requests injunctive relief to prevent further harm to the wBTC market.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, the Solana meme coin HAWK created by influencer Hailey Welch experienced a crash after its launch. HAWK began trading at 4 PM (ET) on Wednesday, with its market cap quickly rising to $400 million, before plummeting over 90% to $37 million.The project team OverHere stated that the token distribution aligns with the tokenomics design, with a 12-month lock-up period for the founding team and a 3-year linear unlocking period, which accounts for only 10% of the total supply.Welch stated on social media that the team has not sold any HAWK tokens and has not given any free tokens to any KOLs. The high transaction fee mechanism was implemented to prevent sniper bots, and the fee rate has now been reduced.

ChainCatcher message, according to the disclosures in the FTX lawsuit documents, Meerun is a complex and well-organized criminal who has defrauded FTX by manipulating tokens such as BTMX since 2021, resulting in losses exceeding $1 billion. His methods include manipulating token prices to increase collateral value, exploiting vulnerabilities in the FTX margin system to obtain funds, and evading monitoring through false KYC materials and multiple associated accounts.The FTX team attempted to freeze Meerun's account but failed to timely stop his withdrawals, resulting in his successful cashing out of $450 million. Additionally, Meerun is also suspected of manipulating other tokens such as MOB, BAO, and SXP, profiting significantly from the characteristics of insufficient market liquidity.The documents further indicate that Meerun has close ties to organized crime networks in Poland, Romania, and Ukraine, which are involved in human trafficking and terrorism financing.

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Aleksei Andriunin, the founder and CEO of cryptocurrency market maker Gotbit, accusing him of committing wire fraud and conspiracy to manipulate the market. It is reported that Andriunin artificially inflated cryptocurrency trading volumes through "fake trades" from 2018 to 2024 to help projects get listed on CoinMarketCap and cryptocurrency exchanges.Prosecutors pointed out that Andriunin provided fake trading services for meme coins including Robo Inu and Saitama, with illegal proceeds transferred to his personal Binance account. Previously, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Gotbit and three other cryptocurrency companies on October 9, seizing over $25 million in cryptocurrency. If Andriunin is convicted of wire fraud, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Other conspiracy charges could carry a maximum sentence of 5 years.ChainCatcher previously reported that the official Gotbit account posted on X stating: "Our CEO Alex Andryunin has been arrested in Portugal. We currently have no further details, but rest assured that your account with Gotbit is safe. Our goal is to prove the innocence of the company and CEO Alex Andryunin. We are fully prepared to cooperate with the authorities, provide all necessary documents to support the investigation, and quickly resolve this misunderstanding. We will update as soon as more information is available."

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, the whale controlling four accounts on Polymarket is a French trader who has spent over $45 million betting on Trump to win the U.S. presidential election.A Polymarket spokesperson stated, "Based on our investigation, we understand that this individual has taken directional positions based on personal views of the election. Furthermore, our investigation to date has not uncovered any information suggesting that this user manipulated or attempted to manipulate the market. The user has agreed not to open any more accounts."

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, 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 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 Bloomberg, a jury of 12 federal jurors in New York will decide whether Mango Markets attacker Avi Eisenberg manipulated the market.It is reported that on Wednesday, the jury heard the closing arguments from the U.S. government in the case against Eisenberg, who was arrested in December 2022 in Puerto Rico and charged with commodity fraud, commodity manipulation, and wire fraud related to Mango Markets. If all three charges are upheld, he faces up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors concluded Eisenberg's trial on Wednesday, stating that he manipulated futures contracts through false trading of MNGO tokens on October 11, 2022, and that traditional criminal law applies to Eisenberg.However, Eisenberg's defense attorney argued that he "employed a successful and legal trading strategy in which he put his own funds at risk. He fully complied with the smart contracts of Mango Markets." The jury did not reach a final verdict on Wednesday. They will reconsider the three charges against Eisenberg on Thursday.

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.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky's lawyers have filed a motion in federal court requesting the judge to dismiss charges related to commodity fraud and market manipulation.According to a document submitted on January 12 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Alex Mashinsky's legal team has filed a motion asking the court to dismiss two felony charges that the former Celsius CEO may face in the trial set for September 2024. The document states that the second charge of commodity fraud is "inconsistent" and "illogical" with the first charge of securities fraud regarding the government's handling of cryptocurrency.Alex Mashinsky's lawyers also argued that the court should dismiss the sixth charge of market manipulation due to "lack of fair notice," claiming that the U.S. government has "created" a criminal charge for a civil violation.