Crypto Market Surveillance Has Arrived

By Sharon Brown-Hruska, Jordan Milev and Trevor Wagener ( May 25, 2018, 12:42 PM EDT) -- The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission have launched a criminal investigation into potential cryptocurrency market manipulation, according to May 24, 2018, news reports. Reports indicate the investigations are looking into possible spoofing — the submission of orders that aren't intended to execute to affect other participants' orders — and wash trading — trading between two accounts controlled by the same person or entity to affect market perceptions of demand or liquidity — in cryptocurrency spot markets.[1] These reports come a few months after the DOJ and CFTC announced a series of coordinated criminal and civil enforcement actions targeting "commodities fraud and spoofing schemes"[2] that the DOJ called "the largest futures market criminal enforcement action" ever.[3] The DOJ announcement highlighted market surveillance, emphasizing that the DOJ and CFTC "have developed the ability to identify spoofing patterns through sophisticated analysis of market-level data" and the DOJ and CFTC "expect to use data analysis to an even greater degree in order to identify fraudulent and manipulative conduct in our financial markets."[4]...

Law360 is on it, so you are, too.

A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions.


A Law360 subscription includes features such as

  • Daily newsletters
  • Expert analysis
  • Mobile app
  • Advanced search
  • Judge information
  • Real-time alerts
  • 450K+ searchable archived articles

And more!

Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial.

Start Free Trial

Already a subscriber? Click here to login

Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!