Gotbit Consulting LLC, a prominent cryptocurrency market maker, was sentenced in federal court for criminal charges related to a multi-year scheme to manipulate digital asset trading volumes, according to a June 13 press release.

Aleksei Andriunin, the firm’s 26-year-old founder and CEO, was sentenced to eight months in prison and one year of supervised release for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and market manipulation.

The Russian-Portuguese national was extradited from Portugal to the U.S. earlier this year after his arrest in October 2024.

Prosecutors say Gotbit orchestrated a sophisticated scheme between 2018 and 2024 that involved “wash trading,” which involves the use of multiple accounts to create fake trades and inflate…