How did the FBI's fake tokens help tell real buyers from fake-trading groups?

"The case originated from an undercover FBI and IRS-CI operation in which the FBI created its own cryptocurrency tokens and engaged the market-making firms to generate trading activity."

"As part of the undercover operation, the FBI created several cryptocurrency tokens."

"The FBI didn’t try to unravel existing wash trading retroactively — they set up a target and let the firms incriminate themselves in real time."

"Rather than attempting to prove wash trading after the fact — a difficult forensic exercise when the trading data is controlled by the accused — the FBI created the trading opportunity, watched the firms manipulate it, and documented the manipulation in real time."

"As described in the indictment, wash trading occurs when a single trader, or a number of traders, working in coordination, act as both the buyer and the seller in the same transaction or a series of transactions."

"According to prosecutors, Zhou described how MyTrade’s software executed self-trades and discussed strategies commonly associated with pump-and-dump schemes."

"This fraudulent trading tactic creates the appearance that these cryptocurrencies have more active, organic trading than really exists, thereby inducing investors to purchase the cryptocurrencies at artificially inflated prices."

"an algorithm that “basically does self-trades, buying and selling … from multiple wallets so it’s not visible.”"

"Instead of matching genuine buyers and sellers, prosecutors said the company used automated trading bots to repeatedly buy and sell the same assets, creating the appearance of active markets without legitimate trading demand."

"He said undercover agents acted as the project team and approached market makers for help creating fake trading activity."

"He said the token had a real site and branding, and that alleged scammers soon offered to fake volume for undercover agents."