Trader faces up to 20 years behind bars over $110 million crypto exchange fraud

A 28-year-old cryptocurrency trader is facing a prison sentence of up to 20 years after being found guilty of stealing more than $100 million dollars after manipulating an exchange.

Avraham Eisenberg was today convicted of commodities manipulation, commodities fraud and wire fraud by 'rigging' the Mango Markets exchange.

It was the first ever criminal case relating to crypto market manipulation for the US Department of Justice.

In a trial that lasted barely a day, Eisenberg insisted he had not deceived anyone and that his trades were entirely legal on Mango - a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) that provides lending, borrowing and swap leverage services.

"We're obviously disappointed, but we will keep fighting for our client," said Eisenberg's lawyer Brian Klein.

"We plan to file a number of post-trial motions."

Prosecutors said the trader had used a pair of accounts to buy and sell futures simultaneously against the value of Mango's MNGO token.

They added that Eisenberg's trades raised the value of his contracts by 1,300% in under half an hour, thus allowing him to borrow against his holdings before "cashing out" around $110 million in an array of cryptocurrencies.

He has been detained since his arrest in Puerto Rico on Boxing Day 2022 due to being categorised as a flight risk.

Sentencing will take place on July 29.