On Wednesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed a criminal case against 18 individuals and companies accused of manipulating crypto markets and inflating token prices. The operation involved a multi-billion-dollar crypto firm and used a fake cryptocurrency created by the FBI as part of the investigation.
The FBI created a token called NexFundAl on the Ethereum blockchain and used it to catch market makers offering wash trading services, where fake buy and sell orders inflate trading volumes.
Some defendants worked at Saitama, a Massachusetts-based crypto firm, which inflated its token price to create a $7.5 billion market value while secretly profiting from token sales.
