Siblings Arrested For $25M Crypto Theft In 12 Seconds | Key Points | May 17, 2024

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Feature Story: U.S. Siblings Arrested For Stealing $25M in Crypto in 12 Seconds

Two MIT-educated brothers, Anton and James Peraire-Bueno, were arrested on charges of exploiting the Ethereum blockchain’s integrity to steal $25 million worth of cryptocurrency in a novel fraud scheme.

Federal prosecutors allege they manipulated the MEV-boost software used by Ethereum network validators to execute their heist in 12 seconds and subsequently laundered the stolen funds.

MEV, or Miner Extractable Value (sometimes also referred to as Maximum Extractable Value), is a concept in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space that describes the potential profit miners (or validators) can make from their ability to arbitrarily include, exclude, or reorder transactions within the blocks they produce.

“These brothers allegedly committed a first-of-its-kind manipulation of the Ethereum blockchain by fraudulently gaining access to pending transactions, altering the movement of the electronic currency, and ultimately stealing $25 million in cryptocurrency from their victims.”

Thomas Fattorusso, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), New York Field Office

Local Crypto News

PH Crypto Communities Prepare to Celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day

Bitcoin Pizza Day commemorates the first real-world Bitcoin (BTC) transaction, which occurred on May 22, 2010. BTC miner Laszlo Hanyecz purchased two boxes of Papa John’s Pizza in Jacksonville, Florida, for 10,000 BTC. Jeremy Sturdivant facilitated the purchase by buying the pizzas for $25 and having them delivered to Hanyecz, who then paid him in Bitcoin.

This landmark event is celebrated annually as Bitcoin Pizza Day to honor this milestone in cryptocurrency history.

With that, check out this article for all the Pizza day meetups in the Philippines next week.

Regulation

Congressman Nickel has urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (U.S. SEC) to withdraw Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 (SAB 121), arguing that it prevents American banks from providing custodial services for digital assets and could push customers to less regulated offshore options. He also criticized the U.S. SEC for not engaging in dialogue and pointed out the inconsistency in allowing spot Bitcoin ETPs while restricting banks’ ability to hold digital assets, potentially leading to systemic risks.

DeFi

The developers of Sonne Finance, a cryptocurrency lending protocol, have offered a bounty to the hacker who stole $20 million in digital assets, including ether and USDC, on Tuesday evening. They paused all markets and published a postmortem of the attack, expressing willingness to forgo further action if the funds are returned.
The BRICS economic alliance plans to launch a decentralized financial system called “The Unit” to challenge the dominance of the U.S. dollar. This new system aims to facilitate cross-border payments and introduce a new international currency backed 40% by gold and 60% by BRICS nations’ currencies, with the goal of reducing dependency on other nations’ currencies and promoting de-dollarization by 2025.
Binance Labs-backed pSTAKE Finance has introduced a Bitcoin liquid staking solution, developed on Babylon’s Bitcoin staking protocol, aiming to make Bitcoin a yield-generating asset. This initiative, part of the broader Bitcoin DeFi (BTCFi) movement, seeks to enhance capital efficiency and offer additional yield opportunities for Bitcoin holders.
Solana recently surpassed Ethereum in decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume, recording $1.3 billion compared to Ethereum’s $1.29 billion. This surge was driven by low fees and memecoin enthusiasm.

Web3 Gaming

Portal, a comprehensive platform for web3 gaming, has partnered with Studio369, the developers of MetalCore, a player-versus-player AAA shooter game. MetalCore recently raised $5 million in funding. Portal’s ecosystem offers a consolidated interface for web3 games, digital assets, and user accounts, simplifying the gaming experience.

Noteworthy

Alexey Pertsev, a developer behind Tornado Cash, was found guilty of money laundering by Dutch judges and received a sentence of five years and four months. The court ruled that Pertsev knowingly facilitated the laundering of $1.2 billion in stolen cryptocurrency, asserting that Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer, was designed to enable criminal activity while Pertsev chose to ignore the illegal use of the tool.

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