Gothit founder sentenced to 8 months in prison for manipulating the cryptocurrency market, team banned from operating for 5 years

Odaily Planet Daily News: Gottit founder and CEO Aleksei Andriunin was sentenced to 8 months in prison by the Massachusetts District Court on Friday for manipulating the cryptocurrency market and implementing millions of dollars in washout trades. After serving his sentence, he will accept a one-year regulatory release. The prosecutor pointed out that Andriunin and the Gotbit team provided false trading volume manufacturing services for multiple cryptocurrency projects from 2018 to 2024, forging on chain activity through code and multi account operations, helping the projects to be listed on CoinMarketCap and attracting large exchanges to go online. Gottit received tens of millions of dollars in compensation as a result. In addition, Gotbit was also sentenced to 5 years of probation during which it was not allowed to continue operating related businesses. The prosecutor stated that Andriunin was arrested in Portugal in October 2024, extradited to the United States in February 2025, and signed a plea agreement in March of this year.