Cryptocurrency exchange MEXC has frozen over 1,500 accounts tied to what it describes as a “large-scale coordinated group of market manipulators,” after its internal investigation uncovered two coordinated groups operating in Vietnam and CIS countries. Some of these accounts showed daily trading volumes exceeding $20 million.
In a blog post, MEXC stated that the groups engaged in practices such as “self-trading, spoofing, layering, front-running, quote stuffing,” and other market manipulative behaviors. According to the exchange’s calculations, coordinated malicious trading activities “have increased by 60% from January to February 2025 compared to the end of 2024.” The exchange added that these schemes are increasingly utilizing “institutional-level access to liquidity, infrastructure, and algorithmic strategies.”
“We are recording the transformation of manipulations from the retail to the group and even quasi-institutional level, which carries systemic risks for both individual exchanges and the market infrastructure as a whole.”
The exchange stated that it has taken steps to mitigate the impact, including reversing suspicious transactions and suspending all identified accounts. It has also implemented a monitoring system for suspicious accounts, placing flagged participants under “enhanced surveillance for at least 30 days.”
Earlier in March, blockchain investigator ZachXBT called the nearly $1.5 billion Bybit hack “eye-opening,” warning that the industry’s security issues might not improve without government regulations that could “hurt our entire industry.” According to ZachXBT, several “decentralized” protocols — such as eXch and THORChain, among others — have generated nearly all of their monthly volume and fees from transactions linked to North Korea. Despite this, the investigator notes, they “refuse to take any accountability.”
