Page 14 - 期货和衍生品行业监管动态（2023年1月）
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期货和衍生品行业监管动态
“ The CFTC will use all available enforcement tools to aggressively pursue
fraud and manipulation regardless of the technology that is utilized,” said Acting
Director of Enforcement Gretchen Lowe. “The CEA prohibits deception and swap
manipulation, whether on a registered swap execution facility or on a decentralized
blockchain-based trading platform.”
Case Background
The complaint alleges that on October 11, 2022, Eisenberg unlawfully
misappropriated over $110 million in digital assets from Mango Markets, a purported
decentralized digital asset exchange, through “oracle manipulation.” To accomplish
his scheme, Eisenberg created two anonymous accounts on Mango Markets, which he
used to establish large leveraged positions in a swap contract whose value was based
upon the relative price of MNGO, the “native” token of Mango Markets, and USDC,
a stablecoin. Eisenberg then artificially pumped up the price of MNGO by rapidly
purchasing substantial quantities of MNGO on three digital asset exchanges that were
the inputs for the “oracle,” or data feed, that Mango Markets used to determine the
value of Eisenberg’s swap positions.
As a result of Eisenberg’s manipulative trading, the price of MNGO as reported
by the oracle, jumped over 13-fold during a 30-minute span, resulting in a temporary,
artificial spike in the value of Eisenberg’s swap positions. Eisenberg then cashed out
his illicit profits by using the artificially inflated value of his swaps as collateral to
withdraw over $110 million in digital assets from Mango Markets, thereby draining
the platform of most of the assets that had been deposited by other users.
Subsequently, in an attempt to evade liability, Eisenberg agreed to return a portion of
the misappropriated digital assets on the condition that Mango Markets agreed, among
other things, to “not pursue any criminal investigations or freezing of funds.”
Eisenberg ultimately returned approximately $67 million to Mango Markets, while
retaining approximately $47 million worth of various digital assets.
Parallel Action
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