Is Jump Trading responsible for the collapse of DIO tokens? How did a market maker supposedly take advantage of a partnership with Fracture Labs to pocket millions and leave chaos behind?

Jump Trading, a prominent name in the crypto trading space, is now entangled in a legal battle. Fracture Labs, the creators of the blockchain-based game Decimated, has sued Jump, accusing the firm of executing a “pump and dump” scheme.

At the heart of the lawsuit, Fracture Labs claims Jump Trading exploited its role as a market maker to inflate the value of its DIO gaming token artificially. Once the price peaked, Jump allegedly sold off its holdings, triggering a sharp price decline.

How does a collaboration designed to promote a token’s success devolve into allegations of fraud and manipulation? Let’s break down the sequence of events leading up to the lawsuit and why it has drawn so much attention.

What happened between Jump Trading and Fracture Labs?

On Oct. 15, Fracture Labs filed a lawsuit against Jump Trading in an Illinois district court, accusing the firm of breaching their agreement and manipulating the DIO token.

To fully grasp the situation, we need to revisit 2021. During this time, Fracture Labs had just launched its DIO token to support its blockchain game, Decimated, and entered a partnership with Jump Trading to facilitate the token’s market introduction.

Jump Trading agreed to serve as a market maker—a role that involves providing liquidity to ensure smooth trading and price stability for the token. Market makers typically buy and sell assets to maintain balanced trading conditions, especially for newly launched tokens like DIO.

As part of the arrangement, Fracture Labs loaned 10 million DIO tokens to Jump, valued at approximately $500,000 at the time. The expectation was that Jump would assist in the token’s debut on the crypto exchange Huobi (HT), now known as HTX.

In addition to the loaned tokens, Fracture Labs sent 6 million more tokens directly to HTX, worth about $300,000, as part of its broader marketing campaign. With these preparations in place, everything seemed primed for a successful launch.

HTX played its part by heavily promoting the DIO token and leveraging influencers and social media campaigns to boost its visibility.

The strategy appeared successful — perhaps overly so. The price of DIO surged to $0.98, dramatically raising the value of Jump’s 10 million DIO holdings from $500,000 to a staggering $9.8 million in a short period.

For Jump Trading, this price surge represented an enormous windfall. The 10 million tokens they had borrowed were suddenly worth nearly $10 million. However, what followed is where the allegations of manipulation arise.

Fracture Labs alleges that Jump Trading saw the soaring price as a profit-making opportunity. Instead of continuing to provide liquidity and stabilize the token, Jump allegedly began selling off its DIO holdings in large quantities.

This mass sell-off caused a steep drop in DIO’s value, plummeting from nearly a dollar to just $0.005—a dramatic collapse that decimated the token’s worth.

The lawsuit further claims that after selling the tokens at their peak, Jump repurchased the devalued DIO tokens for just $53,000. This allowed Jump to return the 10 million tokens it had borrowed, fulfilling its obligation to Fracture Labs, all while pocketing millions in profit.

Breach of trust and legal fallout

The collapse of DIO’s price had devastating consequences for Fracture Labs. According to the lawsuit, the sudden and severe drop in value crippled the company’s ability to attract new investors or sustain interest in the DIO token.

Adding to their troubles, Fracture Labs had deposited 1.5 million Tether (USDT) into an HTX holding account as a safeguard against accusations of market manipulation. This deposit was intended to reassure the market that Fracture Labs would not manipulate DIO’s price during its first 180 days of trading.

However, due to the extreme price volatility that Fracture Labs claims were triggered by Jump Trading’s actions, HTX allegedly refused to return most of the USDT deposit. This left Fracture Labs with not only a devalued token but also a substantial financial loss from their USDT deposit.

Fracture Labs is now accusing Jump Trading of fraud, civil conspiracy, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty. They assert that Jump Trading abused the trust placed in them as a market maker, using their privileged position to manipulate DIO’s price for personal gain.

The lawsuit seeks damages, the return of the profits that Jump allegedly made from the scheme, and a jury trial to settle the matter. Interestingly, HTX is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Jump Trading’s troubled past

The controversy surrounding Jump Trading is not new, as the firm has been under regulatory scrutiny multiple times in recent years.

In fact, both Jump Trading and its crypto arm, Jump Crypto, have faced several legal and regulatory challenges, raising concerns about their operations in the crypto market.

One of the more prominent cases surfaced in November 2023, when Jump Crypto’s involvement came under the spotlight in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Terraform Labs.

The lawsuit, originally filed in February 2023, alleged that Terraform Labs and its former CEO, Do Kwon, engaged in fraudulent activities and sold unregistered securities, focusing on their failed algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST).

The collapse of UST in May 2022 led to billions of dollars in losses and significant turmoil across the broader crypto market.

According to the SEC, when UST first began losing its dollar peg in 2021, Terraform Labs collaborated with Jump Crypto to artificially boost the stablecoin’s value. 

The regulator claimed that Jump Crypto purchased large amounts of UST to restore its price, temporarily stabilizing the asset. However, when UST experienced its final collapse in May 2022, no similar intervention took place.

Terraform Labs, however, denied these claims, stating that Jump Crypto’s actions had no bearing on UST’s earlier recovery.

In April 2024, Terraform Labs reached a settlement with the SEC, agreeing to pay $4.47 billion after a jury found them liable for defrauding investors. The settlement included $420 million in civil fines, $3.6 billion in disgorgement, and $467 million in interest.

Although Jump Crypto was linked to UST’s earlier recovery efforts, it was neither charged nor formally implicated in any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

By June 2024, Jump Crypto found itself under investigation by another U.S. regulatory body—the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The CFTC launched a probe into Jump Crypto, reportedly scrutinizing its trading and investment activities within the crypto sector. Kanav Kariya, the firm’s former president, resigned just days later.

While the specifics of the investigation remain confidential, and no official allegations have been made, the probe reflects a broader push by U.S. regulators, including the CFTC, to intensify their enforcement actions against crypto firms throughout 2023 and 2024.

What to expect next?

If Fracture Labs succeeds in proving Jump Trading’s misconduct, it could trigger a major shift across the crypto industry, leading to tighter regulations and increased scrutiny of market makers.

However, this case is more than just one lawsuit. Governments, especially in the U.S. and Europe, are actively developing policies aimed at curbing market abuses. This case might provide regulators with the prime example they need to justify stricter oversight of market makers.

Additionally, token creators may start advocating for decentralized solutions or pushing for more restrictive contracts that limit the influence of market makers.

For the crypto industry to truly mature, this could be a crucial moment that compels everyone — projects, exchanges, and investors — to reevaluate how tokens are launched and managed, placing a greater emphasis on fairness and trust.

According to a new report from Helika on Telegram games, engagement with NFTs and longer player sessions increased in Telegram’s gaming ecosystem during Q3 2024.

The number of unique wallets transferring NFTs surged from 200,000 to over 1 million during the quarter, per the report, with 600,000 wallets actively involved in NFT transactions within games.

Players also spend more time playing Telegram games. The report showed that average session lengths nearly doubled from 2.8 to 6.7 minutes, suggesting that improved game design keeps users engaged.

Regional data indicates a shift in Telegram’s gaming audience compared to other Web3 platforms, with 55.91% of players coming from Europe, in contrast to Asia and Latin America, where Web3 gaming traditionally thrives.

Increased engagement on Telegram games 

Per the report, Catizen completed its first airdrops, distributing 34% of its total token allocation, which included 150 million tokens distributed in September 2024 alone. The airdrop increased activity, reflecting its integration into Telegram.

In September, Binance listed Catizen on the Binance Launchpool, allowing users to farm the gaming bot’s native token ahead of trading.

Like Catizen, Gamee experienced a 300% increase in volume and transactions month over month, showing more players and engagement. X Empire attracted nearly 48 million players, with 18 million connecting their wallets to engage with the game’s features. 

According to the report, Rocky Rabbit had 30 million players, and Banana reached 10 million users by October. Wonton users surpassed 1 million within its first week. 

However, the report also highlighted challenges faced by developers as new games flood the platform. Small development teams struggle with limited marketing budgets and attracting users. Developers are expanding game genres and introducing a wider variety of experiences, such as simulations, RPGs, and puzzles, indicating that Telegram’s gaming ecosystem is evolving beyond simple, casual games.

A recent report commissioned by Elympics, a Web3 gaming protocol, highlighted how Telegram and blockchain technology have transformed the gaming world.

The research report, shared with crypto.news and based on feedback from nearly 1,000 global gamers, shows how platforms like Telegram and the rise of “compete-to-earn” games are driving the adoption of Web3 gaming.

The success of Telegram as a gaming platform was evident in the survey results, with 53.56% of players choosing it as their preferred platform for playing mobile games. This highlights Telegram’s growing influence in the gaming space and its ability to attract a large, engaged player base.

Most respondents, 78.77%, reported playing games daily, while 15.19% indicated they play a few days a week.

With the rise of competitive gaming, the report delved into the impact of blockchain games and their community-driven advances on the gaming industry.

“Our research shows that with the entry of social platforms such as Telegram into the Web3 world and the skill games growth with community-driven money competitions, we are seeing the start of mass adoption by players around worldwide. Gamers enjoy winning through competition so we build games meeting this need.”

Tom Kopera, COO of Elympics

Traditionally, games have been centralized, meaning a company controls the game’s development, design, and rules. In blockchain games, the power is more decentralized—players have more control, and they can own in-game assets that can’t be easily tampered with.

“Blockchain decentralizes the ownership, turning players into investors of time and money into their beloved games.”

Stan Fiedor, General Manager Europe of Wemix

This ownership includes everything from virtual items to characters to NFTs, which are stored on a blockchain and can even be traded outside of the game.

Mass adoption of blockchain games

One of the major points in the report is how these new games can transform mobile gaming. Blockchain-based mobile games offer players the chance to monetize their skills and gameplay, turning a previously passive activity into one with financial rewards.

The report noted that blockchain gaming is on the verge of mass adoption, with “a growing interest from gamers eager to participate,” according to Michał Dąbrowski, CEO of Elympics.

However, the report noted that Web3 gaming is still overcoming skepticism due to the flaws of its earlier versions. Initial blockchain games faced issues like poor design and broken in-game economies. 

According to the survey, the most common reason for not playing blockchain games is uncertainty about how to get started, with 32.11% of respondents citing that they “have no idea how to start.” 

Today, the industry has learned from some of these mistakes, with developers focusing on creating better games with solid economic models that encourage fair play and real ownership of digital assets. Elympics believes that, by adding real-world stakes to gaming, Web3 could be the next big shift in the industry.

TON and Telegram

TON (TON) and Telegram have embraced blockchain to drive engagement and revenue without compromising user trust, the report noted. TON has become a popular hub for hyper-casual games like Notcoin (NOT) and Hamster Kombat, attracting millions of users. 

Telegram’s simplified crypto wallet, automatically integrated for non-US users, eliminates barriers to entry, helping onboard millions of real users effortlessly.

Blockchain games on TON appeal to both casual and competitive gamers, offering a seamless experience that feels no different from traditional Web2 games.

The report concluded that platforms like Telegram are helping to bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3, creating an ecosystem where players may not even realize they are engaging with blockchain technology.