In a groundbreaking verdict, a jury has unanimously declared Avraham Eisenberg, the trader responsible for the $110 million fraud on the Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) trading platform Mango Markets, guilty in the first-ever cryptocurrency market manipulation case in the United States. The Department of Justice released a statement stating that Eisenberg was convicted of commodities fraud, commodities market manipulation, and wire fraud related to the trading scheme that left Mango Markets bankrupt and its users unable to access their funds.

On October 11th, 2022, Mango Markets disclosed that an attacker had artificially inflated the price of Mango (MNGO) and utilized the unrealized profit from their long position in the utility token as collateral to borrow significant amounts of crypto assets from the platform. A week later, Eisenberg, a self-proclaimed “digital art dealer,” came forward as the mastermind behind the exploit. However, the 28-year-old maintained that he considered the scheme a legitimate trading strategy and blamed the protocol developers for their failure to anticipate such an event.

Following his arrest in Puerto Rico on December 26th, 2022, Eisenberg stood trial for his actions and was found guilty on April 18th after a 10-day jury trial. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri stated, “Manipulative trading jeopardizes our financial markets and puts investors at risk. This prosecution, the first of its kind involving the manipulation of cryptocurrency through open-market trades, underscores the Criminal Division’s dedication to safeguarding U.S. financial markets and holding wrongdoers accountable, regardless of the methods they employ to commit manipulation and fraud.”

The sentencing is scheduled for July 29th.

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