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How FBI agents unmasked crypto price manipulators

Symbolic image: To track down cryptocurrency manipulators, the FBI used a tactic known in the IT security world as the "honeypot".(Bild: stock.adobe.com/Olga - stock.adobe.com)

The enormous price fluctuations in the world of cryptocurrencies give fortune-seekers hope of huge profits, but they also attract fraudsters and manipulators. They use opaque tricks to lure unsuspecting investors into traps and line their pockets. Now the FBI has taken a closer look at their tactics - with a rather perfidious trick.

The prices of cryptocurrencies are based on supply and demand - right? Apparently not: after extensive investigations, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was able to prove that manipulation in the crypto world is anything but unusual. A total of 18 people and companies were charged with fraud and market manipulation, and arrests were made in three different states. For the manipulators, the raid came unexpectedly; the FBI used a previously unknown and rather perfidious tactic. Krone+ explains how it worked.