Crypto trader convicted in $110M Mango Markets fraud trial: Bloomberg

After a one-week trial, a jury convicted crypto trader Avraham Eisenberg

article-image

Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Crypto trader Avraham Eisenberg was convicted on Thursday in relation to trades he made in October 2022 to extract more than $100 million from Mango Markets, according to a report from Bloomberg.

28-year-old Eisenberg was charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud and commodities manipulation. The jury found him guilty of all three counts.

After closing arguments from the government and defense, the jury deliberated Wednesday afternoon and into Thursday before returning with their verdict. The trial lasted one week and took place just a few floors below where FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced last month.

Read more: Mango Markets wants Eisenberg to pay up, his lawyers say the ‘matter was settled’

Eisenberg was arrested in Puerto Rico in December 2022. Prosecutors say he illegally made off with $110 million after manipulating Mango Market futures contracts and pumping the price of swaps by 1,000%. He then borrowed against the contracts and boarded a flight from Puerto Rico to Israel. 

The government says he was fleeing because he committed a crime, but Eisenberg’s defense team claims he was running after receiving numerous threats following his trades. 

“The more he pumped, the more he could steal,” government attorneys said Wednesday during their closing arguments. “It is clear as day the defendant knew” he was committing crimes, the prosecution added. 

The defense’s case focused on the structure of decentralized exchange Mango Markets, which, Eisenberg’s team says, allowed for the trades to take place. 

Read more: DeFi trader Avi Eisenberg is stuck in US custody. Here’s how he got there.

Eisenberg employed a “successful, legal trading strategy,” defense attorney Brian Klein told the jury Wednesday. 

His client was never asked to prove his identity, maintain collateral on the platform or complete a credit check, Klein said. 

In the government’s rebuttal, assistant US attorney Thomas Burnett said that the defense was trying to distract from the government’s claims. 

“The data and documents show he was borrowing. You should believe your own eyes,” he told the court.

This is a developing story.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) represent low-hanging fruit in a massive market ripe for Web3-driven disruption. The global CDN market was valued at ~$28B in 2024, and is projected to surpass $140B by 2034, (18.75% CAGR) underscoring the immense demand for efficient content delivery.

article-image

Trading on OTC Markets since 2019, the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund currently holds BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP and ADA

article-image

Long before BlackRock’s ETF, there was the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust

article-image

Mainnet goes live with a 16-node federation, promising five-second block times, low fees and Bitcoin-native DeFi

article-image

Sponsored

WalletConnect Certified is not just a recognition program, it’s a movement to improve how users onboard, transact, and engage across the onchain ecosystem

article-image

In crypto investing, quantity has a quality all its own.