米湯
世界真小. It's a small world!
https://x.com/jeremybtc/status/2045999167559069858
Two MIT brothers stole $25 MILLION from Ethereum in exactly 12 seconds. The jury couldn't decide if it was even a crime.
Anton and James Peraire-Bueno both studied computer science at MIT.
Their father was the former head of MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
In late 2022, they found a vulnerability inside MEV-boost, a piece of software running on 90% of all Ethereum validators.
They spent months planning. Set up 16 fake validator nodes. Ran test transactions to study how MEV bots behaved.
Then they baited the bots, dangling transactions the bots were designed to attack.
The moment the bots moved in, the brothers exploited the vulnerability to see the block's contents before it was finalized
Rerouted $25 MILLION in real crypto out of it and replaced it with worthless illiquid tokens.
The bots were left holding coins that were effectively worth zero.
Total execution time: 12 seconds. The length of one Ethereum block.
Victims reached out asking for the money back. The brothers never responded.
After the exploit, Anton searched online for "top crypto lawyers," "wire fraud statute of limitations," and "money laundering statute of limitations."?
He misspelled statute as "statue" both times.
James walked into a bank and asked for a safe deposit box big enough to fit a laptop.
The DOJ arrested them in May 2024 and called it the first crime of its kind ever charged.
Each brother faced up to 20 years in prison on three counts of wire fraud and money laundering.
Their defense: what they did fell within the accepted rules of Ethereum.?
Validators are expected to maximize profits. They just did it better than anyone else.
The trial lasted four weeks. The jury deliberated until some jurors were reportedly in tears.
They couldn't agree. The judge declared a mistrial.
Two MIT graduates exploited Ethereum for $25 MILLION in 12 seconds and a jury still couldn't decide if it was a crime.?
That's either the best defense in legal history or the most honest thing anyone has ever said about crypto.
