Crypto Trader Arrested Over Manipulating Mango Markets, Causing $110M In Losses

Avraham Eisenberg, a crypto trader, was arrested on Monday in Puerto Rico for using his "highly profitable trading strategy" to siphon off digital assets worth $110 million from the decentralized finance (DeFi) trading platform Mango Markets. 

What Happened: Eisenberg has been charged with fraudulent and manipulative activities with respect to Mango Markets, the complaint reveals. In October this year, he and his team exploited the platform by artificially inflating the price of its native token MNGO MNGO/USD, by an astounding 1,300%.

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FBI Special Agent Brandon Racz's deposition alleges that Eisenberg "willfully and knowingly" violated Mango Markets' futures contracts through a scheme involving deceptive practices and intentionally manipulated prices. 

According to Racz, Eisenberg “engaged in a scheme involving the intentional and artificial manipulation of the price of perpetual futures contracts on a cryptocurrency exchange called Mango Markets, and other manipulative and deceptive devices and contrivances.”

Eisenberg called himself a "digital art dealer" as per his Twitter bio. He returned over $67 million to the Solana-based DeFi platform on Oct.16 and kept $47 million as a bug bounty. He had publicly admitted to taking advantage of the crypto exchange, revealing that he was part of a group that “operated a highly profitable trading strategy” and believed all their activities were legal and within the bounds of the open market.

The attacker had wiped assets including USD Coin USDC/USD, Marinade Staked Solana MSOL/USD, Solana SOL/USD, Bitcoin BTC/USD, Tether USDT/USD, Serum SRM/USD and Mango MNGO/USD.

Price Action: At the time of writing, MNGO was trading at $0.02, down 0.51% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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