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H. Market Manipulation

1. Market Manipulation shall comprise the following activities, with the exception of any Accepted Practice—
 
  a. entering into a transaction, placing an order to trade or any other behaviour which—
 
    i. gives, or is likely to give, false or misleading signals as to the supply of, demand for or price of a Virtual Asset; or
    ii. secures, or is likely to secure, the price of one or several Virtual Assets at an abnormal or artificial level;
 
  b. entering into a transaction, placing an order to trade or any other activity or behaviour which affects or is likely to affect the price of one or several Virtual Assets, which employs a fictitious device or any other form of deception or contrivance;
  c. disseminating information through the media, which gives, or is likely to give, false or misleading signals as to the supply of, demand for, or price of a Virtual Asset, or is likely to secure the price of one or several Virtual Assets at an abnormal or artificial level, including the dissemination of rumours where the Entity who made the dissemination knew, or ought to have known, that the information was false or misleading;
  d. transmitting false or misleading information or providing false or misleading inputs in relation to a benchmark where the Entity who made the transmission or provided the input knew or ought to have known that it was false or misleading, or any other behaviour which manipulates the calculation of a benchmark;
  e. the conduct by an Entity, or Entities acting in collaboration, to inflate the price of a Virtual Asset by securing a dominant position over the supply of or demand for a Virtual Asset;
  f. the buying or selling of Virtual Assets at a particular point in time in the trading or settlement cycle of any given Virtual Asset so as to have the effect of misleading investors acting on the basis of the prices displayed;
  g. the placing of orders on a trading venue operated by a VASP providing Exchange Services or other organised market for Virtual Assets, including any cancellation or modification thereof, by any available means of trading, including by electronic means, which has one of the effects referred to in this Regulation VIII.H.1—
 
    i. disrupting or delaying the functioning of the trading system of the trading venue or being likely to do so;
    ii. making it more difficult for other Entities to identify genuine orders on the trading system of the trading venue or being likely to do so, including by entering orders which result in the overloading or destabilisation of the order book; or
    iii. creating or being likely to create a false or misleading signal about the supply of, or demand for, or price of, a Virtual Asset, in particular by entering orders to initiate or exacerbate a trend;
 
  h. taking advantage of occasional or regular access to the traditional or electronic media by voicing an opinion about a Virtual Asset [or indirectly about its Issuer] whilst having previously taken positions on that Virtual Asset and profiting subsequently from the impact of the opinions voiced on the price of that Virtual Asset without having simultaneously disclosed that conflict of interest to the public in a proper and effective way;
  i. omission or failure to take any action which would correct any activities listed in Regulations VIII.H.1.a-h; and
  j. distributing, maintaining, or otherwise making available to others any software, algorithm, or other computer programme designed to carry out any of the activities listed in Regulations VIII.H.1.a-h with the exception of any Accepted Practice [Market Manipulation].
 
2. Where the Entity referred to in Regulation VIII.H.1 is a legal entity, the Regulation shall also apply to the individual[s] who participate in the decision to carry out activities for the account of the legal entity concerned.
3. By way of exception to Regulation VIII.H.1, Accepted Practices shall include, but not be limited to, the following, which shall not amount to Market Manipulation—
 
  a. entering into a lending, borrowing, repurchase or reverse repurchase transaction in respect of a Virtual Asset for legitimate trading purposes which does not disrupt the fair and orderly functioning of any market involving Virtual Assets and without any intention to do so;
  b. entering into a transaction involving the provision of a Virtual Asset as collateral that is not designed to have any of the effects described in Regulation VIII.H.1.g;
  c. entering into a transaction in a Virtual Asset for the purposes of satisfying a prior legal or regulatory obligation, provided that [where that commitment was created under contract] the obligation entered into does not disrupt the fair and orderly functioning of any market involving Virtual Assets and without any intention to do so; and
  d. use of an algorithmic or high-frequency trading strategy that is not designed to have any of the effects described in Regulation VIII.H.1.g and which has been designed and implemented in such a way as to not disrupt the fair and orderly functioning of any market involving Virtual Assets and without any intention to do so.