Crypto Firms Charged With Market Manipulation in US Sting (1)

Three market making firms allegedly promised to gin up an avalanche of fake trades to boost the value of NexFundAI’s cryptocurrency token. What they didn’t know was that NexFundAI wasn’t a real company. It was part of an elaborate sting operation by federal prosecutors.

Representatives of ZM Quant, CLS Global and MyTrade were among 15 crypto promoters and traders charged with market manipulation and fraud in a wide-ranging probe prompted by a tip from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, authorities in Boston said in a statementWednesday.

The scheme involved wash trades — using accounts you control to trade ...