The U.S. Department of Justice's Northern California office has charged 10 executives and employees from four crypto market-making firms—Gotbit, Vortex, Antier, and Contrarian—with artificially inflating token volumes and prices through wash trading. Three defendants have been extradited from Singapore to the U.S., while two others have pleaded guilty and been sentenced. The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation Division conducted undercover operations, even creating multiple cryptocurrencies to investigate illegal volume inflation and pump-and-dump schemes in the industry. Authorities have seized over $1 million in crypto assets as part of the investigation.