FILE PHOTO: A representation of cryptocurrency Ethereum is placed on a PC motherboard in this illustration taken June 16, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File PhotoBOSTON : Two brothers who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were arrested on Wednesday on U.S. charges that they carried out a cutting-edge scheme to exploit the Ethereum blockchain's integrity and steal $25 million worth of cryptocurrency.
Authorities said they executed their elaborate heist in April 2023, stealing $25 million from traders in just 12 seconds by fraudulently gaining access to pending transactions and altering the movement of cryptocurrency. An indictment charged them with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Anton Peraire-Bueno was arrested in Boston, while James Peraire-Bueno was arrested in New York.Both brothers had attended Cambridge, Massachusetts-based MIT, where according to prosecutors they studied computer science and math and developed the skills and education they relied upon to carry out their fraud.
Prosecutors said they did so by exploiting a vulnerability in the code of software called MEV-boost that is used by most Ethereum network"validators," who are responsible for checking that new transactions are valid before they are added to the blockchain.