Digitex CEO Fined $16 Million for Manipulating DGTX Token Price

A United States federal court has ordered Digitex CEO Adam Todd to pay roughly $16 million in disgorgement and penalties for manipulating the price of the DGTX token.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said in a June 12 announcement that a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida issued a default judgment against Todd and four other companies under his control. The companies are Digitex LLC, Digitex Limited, Digitex Software Limited, and Blockster Holdings Limited Corporation.

The CFTC alleged that Todd used a computerized bot to buy more DGTX tokens than he sold, which artificially inflated the price of the token. The commission also alleged that Todd failed to register Digitex with the CFTC, which is required for entities that trade commodities.

As part of the judgment, Todd and the other companies are banned from trading in any CFTC-regulated markets. They are also required to pay $3,912,220 in disgorgement and a $11,736,660 civil monetary penalty.

The CFTC’s enforcement director, Ian McGinley, said that the agency “will aggressively use its well-established authority to ensure entities are lawfully registered and to address the manipulation of commodities in interstate commerce.”

The $16 million order is the latest in a series of high-profile enforcement actions by the CFTC against crypto firms and their executives. In recent months, the agency has also filed charges against crypto exchange Binance and former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

This is all part of the process of weeding out the cowboys from this business. It’s unfortunate, as Digitex was on the verge of creating something really great for the retail crypto trader. As of this writing, the Digitex exchange is dark and will likely not be re-started.