MEXC Suspends Over 1,500 Accounts in Market Manipulation Scheme

The cryptocurrency exchange MEXC has suspended more than 1,500 accounts that were involved in a coordinated market manipulation scheme operating in Vietnam and CIS countries.

After an internal investigation, MEXC discovered two coordinated groups involved in the manipulation, with some accounts showing daily trading volumes of over $20 million. In a blog post, MEXC described the groups as a "large-scale coordinated group of market manipulators" that engaged in practices such as "self-trading, spoofing, layering, front-running, quote stuffing," and other market manipulative behaviors.

According to MEXC's calculations, the number of coordinated malicious trading activities has increased by 60% from January to February 2025 compared to the end of 2024. The exchange noted that these schemes are increasingly using "institutional-level access to liquidity, infrastructure, and algorithmic strategies."

"We are observing the transformation of manipulations from the retail to the group and even quasi-institutional level, which poses systemic risks for both individual exchanges and the market infrastructure as a whole," MEXC said.

MEXC Takes Action to Mitigate Impact

To mitigate the impact of the manipulation scheme, MEXC has taken several steps, including rolling back suspicious transactions and suspending all identified accounts. The exchange has also implemented a monitoring system for suspicious accounts and placed flagged participants under "enhanced surveillance for at least 30 days."

Earlier in March, blockchain sleuth ZachXBT called the nearly $1.5 billion Bybit hack "eye-opening," warning that the industry's security problems might not improve without government regulations that could "hurt our entire industry." ZachXBT noted that several "decentralized" protocols, such as eXch and THORChain, have generated nearly all of their monthly volume and fees from transactions linked to North Korea. Despite this, ZachXBT said, they "refuse to take any accountability."