🛀 [Analysis] KuCoin’s leaked ‘volume-boosting’ offers draw accusations of wash trading

A report from The Block claims that in December 2018, Hong-Kong exchange KuCoin asked 18 lightly traded crypto projects like Jibrel, Public, and Unikrn to "boost volumes" or face delisting. The exchange eventually delisted 16 of the tokens after they failed to hit minimum volumes, but not before introducing them to affiliate market making services who could help pump their volumes (read: wash trade) "by any means necessary.” The fees? Up to $180k according to Jibrel’s COO Talal Tabbaa. Interestingly enough, KuCoin had previously avoided the “exchange advisory list” published by the Blockchain Transparency Institute, which seeks to flag exchange related performance and ethics issues like wash trading.