MEXC has detected and suspended more than 1,500 accounts involved in a coordinated effort to manipulate the market across Vietnam and CIS nations.
The cryptocurrency exchange MEXC has halted over 1,500 accounts associated with what it has labeled a “large-scale coordinated group of market manipulators.” This action follows an internal investigation that revealed two organized groups operating within Vietnam and CIS countries, with certain accounts reporting daily trading volumes exceeding $20 million.
In a recent post, MEXC reported that these groups participated in activities such as “self-trading, spoofing, layering, front-running, and quote stuffing,” among other forms of market manipulation. The exchange noted that its data indicates a “60% increase in coordinated malicious trading activities from January to February 2025 compared to late 2024.” These manipulative schemes appear to increasingly utilize “institutional-level access to liquidity, infrastructure, and algorithmic strategies.”
“We are witnessing a shift in manipulative tactics from retail to group and even quasi-institutional levels, which poses systemic risks both for individual exchanges and the broader market infrastructure.”
MEXC
The exchange has announced several proactive measures to reduce the impact of these activities, which include reversing suspicious transactions and suspending all identified accounts. In addition, a monitoring system has been implemented to track suspicious accounts, placing flagged participants under “enhanced surveillance for at least 30 days.”
Earlier in March, blockchain analyst ZachXBT referred to the nearly $1.5 billion Bybit hack as “eye-opening,” cautioning that the industry’s security challenges may not improve without regulatory oversight, which could “harm our entire industry.” He pointed out that several “decentralized” protocols, like eXch and THORChain, have accrued almost all of their monthly volume and fees through transactions tied to North Korea. Yet despite these issues, he noted, these entities “refuse to take any accountability.”