U.S. prosecutors have charged 10 people with cryptocurrency price manipulation, putting renewed focus on the boundary between wash trading and the roles of market makers and price manipulators.

According to a recent Coindesk report, federal prosecutors in California charged 10 people this week affiliated with Gotbit, Vortex, Antier and Contrarian. They are accused of artificially inflating token prices and trading volumes and then selling at peaks, harming investors.

The allegations were uncovered through an FBI undercover operation in which agents created their own token to identify companies offering price-manipulation services.

Gotbit founder Aleksei Andriunin (알렉세이 안드리우닌) last year pleaded guilty to wire fraud and 2 counts of conspiracy to manipulate prices and agreed to forfeit $23 million.

AdLunam co-founder Jason Fernandes (제이슨 페르난데스) said, "In crypto, liquidity is a matter of perception." He said inflating volume is an easy shortcut because trading volume draws attention, listings and capital. Wash trading is carried out by coordinated accounts trading back and forth to create demand that appears like organic trading flow. Fernandes pointed out that not only bad actors, but also projects, market-making firms and even exchanges themselves often benefit from high trading volumes.