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CFTC Alleges Market Manipulation Against Mango Markets Exploiter
DOJ arrested Avraham Eisenberg last year on similar charges.
By Nikhilesh De
Updated Jan 9, 2023, 7:45 p.m. Published Jan 9, 2023, 6:58 p.m.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) brought manipulation charges against Mango Markets exploiter Avraham Eisenberg on Monday, just weeks after he was arrested by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on similar charges.
A lawsuit dated Monday alleges that Eisenberg violated federal commodities law by using a "manipulative or deceptive device" to manipulate the price of the MNGO token through swaps, and also that he engaged in "manipulation of a swap" for his role in exploiting Mango Markets in October. More than $100 million in crypto was taken from the decentralized exchange after a trader used multiple accounts to buy, sell and hedge the price of the MNGO token.
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Eisenberg later said he was part of a group that "operated a highly profitable trading strategy" and would return some of the funds to Mango. In later tweets he said he believed his actions were legal. The Justice Department arrested him roughly two months later on market manipulation charges.
Like the DOJ, the CFTC pointed to Eisenberg's public statements, saying he "admit[ted] to his scheme" in a Discord server prior to the exploit and in tweets after the funds were drained.
"Contrary to his purported belief that his actions were legal, in fact, they constituted blatant manipulation of spot prices and swaps," the CFTC said.
Eisenberg, who was arrested in Puerto Rico near the end of 2022, remains detained pending trial.
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What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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