Two brothers studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were arrested on Wednesday for an innovative scheme that took advantage of maximum extractable value (MEV) bots on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain and made $25 million in 12 seconds. Earn.
Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, and James Peraire-Bueno, 28, are accused of carrying out a fraud that federal prosecutors in Manhattan described as “novel”, marking the first time that such a case has been the subject of criminal charges in the US. Used to be. In a press release published by the Office of Public Affairs, US Attorney Damien Williams emphasized the seriousness of the alleged scheme:
As we allege, Defendants’ scheme calls into question the integrity of the blockchain.
The brothers, who studied computer science and mathematics at MIT, have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
a carefully planned operation
according to the indictmentThe Perriere-Bueno brothers spent several months plotting to manipulate and tamper with the protocol used to validate transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. they exploited Middleware called MEV-BoostWhich is used by most of the Ethereum network “validators” who are responsible for verifying the validity of new transactions before they are added to the blockchain.
The conspirators set up a series of Ethereum validators, deployed bait transactions to attract MEV bots, and then took advantage of a vulnerability in MEV-Boost to prematurely release escrow contents. After successfully carrying out the heist, the brothers reportedly refused requests to return the funds and instead took steps to launder and hide the stolen cryptocurrency.
This development follows the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). request for comment Three Ethereum (ETH) spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) offerings were introduced in early April by Grayscale Investments, Fidelity, and Bitwise. In early May, Such a product was launched in Hong Kong,
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