Only when using non aligned intwrests, like government funding roads.

When interests directly align and parties are largely owned by the same people, its wash trading.

The point of wash trading is to make activity increase the value of an asset via a netzero activity. Since nothing is generated from the activity its circular, eg, nothing physical changes hands.

Crypto trading is the golden child of wash trading as the primary mode of increasing the value of an asset.

Its unsurprising then that the company that got rich on crypto wash trading is doing its own attempts to drive artificial demand.