MyTrade Founder Fined $10K Over Bots That Wash Traded 60 Cryptocurrencies
MyTrade founder Liu Zhou was sentenced in Boston federal court to no prison time and a $10,000 fine for operating a wash trading service that inflated trading volumes across about 60 cryptocurrencies. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud after being charged in October 2024 with 17 others. MyTrade openly sold “Volume Support,” letting clients choose how many fake trades to run on specific exchanges through a dashboard, with bots repeatedly buying and selling the same asset to boost apparent volume. Zhou allegedly described the service as self-trades and said it could be used to help pump-and-dump schemes by attracting outside buyers. The case stemmed from an FBI sting using a fictitious crypto firm, NexFundAI, which led to broader charges against multiple market makers. As part of the plea deal, MyTrade must stop selling the service, disable its bots, and post a notice stating that volume support is wash trading and illegal in the U.S.
