Two students managed to steal $ 25 million worth of Ethereum in just 12 seconds

Two brothers, students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), are accused of interfering with the Ethereum blockchain BTC $98,746.27 Bitcoin 0.24% Market capitalization $1.95 trillion VOL. 24 hours $4.57 billion . It is alleged that in just 12 seconds, the boys allegedly stole $ 25 million worth of digital assets using a sophisticated scheme that, according to prosecutor Damian Williams, «calls into question the very integrity of the blockchain.»

Anton and James Pereiro-Bueno have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Each of the brothers faces up to 20 years in prison for each charge.

According to investigators, the MIT students gained access to «pending private transactions «on the blockchain and «used this access to alter individual transactions and obtain their victims' cryptocurrency.» They set up a series of Ethereum validators through fictitious companies and foreign crypto exchanges to hide their identities and launched «decoy transactions» to attract the attention of bots looking for lucrative opportunities on the Ethereum network. Validators controlled by the brothers exploited the vulnerability in the block generation process, changing transactions and reordering the block in favor of the attackers before adding it to the blockchain.

The brothers' online search history showed that they took measures to conceal their illicit income by creating fictitious companies and using several private cryptocurrency addresses and foreign computer exchanges that do not apply customer verification (KYC) procedures.

The criminal scheme was uncovered through a thorough investigation that combined advanced technology and traditional investigative actions both on and off the blockchain.