Founder of Cryptocurrency Financial Services Firm “Gotbit” Extradited to the United States to Face Charges of Market Manipulation and Fraud Conspiracy

BOSTON – A Russian national residing in Portugal has been extradited to the United States for his role in a wide-ranging conspiracy to allegedly manipulate cryptocurrency markets on behalf of client cryptocurrency companies.

Aleksei Andriunin, 26, was arrested in Portugal on Oct. 8, 2024 and extradited to the United States on Feb. 25, 2025. He appeared in federal court in Boston today and was ordered detained pending a hearing to be scheduled at a later date. On Oct. 31, 2024, Andriunin was indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud. The indictment also charges Gotbit and two of its directors, Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili.

According to court documents, Gotbit was a well-known “market maker” in the cryptocurrency industry. It is alleged that between 2018 and 2024, Gotbit provided market manipulation services to create artificial trading volume for multiple cryptocurrency companies, including companies located in the United States. Aleksei Andriunin was Gotbit’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. In a 2019 interview, Andriunin allegedly described how he developed a code to “wash trade” cryptocurrencies to artificially inflate trading volume for the purpose of getting cryptocurrencies listed on CoinMarketCap (a website that published information about “trending” cryptocurrencies) and trading on larger cryptocurrency exchanges. Andriunin and Gotbit’s employees, including Jalili (Gotbit’s Director of Sales) and Kedrov (Gotbit’s Director of Market Making), allegedly marketed these wash trading tactics to prospective clients and explained how Gotbit used multiple accounts to avoid detection of the wash trades on the public blockchain. Gotbit allegedly made wash trades worth millions of dollars on behalf of clients and received tens of millions of dollars in proceeds in connection with these fraudulent services. It is alleged that Andriunin transferred millions of dollars of Gotbit’s proceeds into his personal Binance account.

The charge of wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, restitution and forfeiture. The charge of conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 to twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, restitution and forfeiture. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the FBI’s Legal Attaché (Madrid) and Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria European Network of Fugitive Active Search Team (ENFAST). The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs coordinated with Portuguese authorities to secure the arrest and extradition of Andriunin. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher J. Markham and David M. Holcomb of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit are prosecuting the case.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendants are presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in the court of law.