Canadian Man Charged for $65 Million DeFi Hack Exploiting Vulnerabilities

KeyTakeaways:

Medjedovic is charged with exploiting vulnerabilities in KyberSwap and Listed Finance.He allegedly laundered stolen funds utilizing digital asset mixers and pretend identities.International legislation enforcement is pursuing Medjedovic, who stays at massive regardless of the indictment.

Andean Medjedovic, a 22-year-old Canadian, is dealing with 5 legal expenses after being indicted for exploiting vulnerabilities in decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms between 2021 and 2023. Medjedovic allegedly manipulated sensible contracts on decentralized change aggregators KyberSwap and Listed Finance, siphoning off $65 million from traders. 

In response to the U.S. Division of Justice, the fees embody wire fraud, laptop harm, extortion, and cash laundering.

Medjedovic’s alleged scheme concerned conducting swap transactions to change stolen tokens, bridging funds throughout a number of blockchains, and utilizing digital asset mixers to obscure the circulate of funds. 

Authorities state that Medjedovic used false identities to create accounts at a number of crypto exchanges, additional concealing his actions. He additionally coordinated with associates to launder the proceeds of the Listed Finance hack, using fraudulent Know Your Buyer (KYC) information.

Moreover, Medjedovic is accused of paying an undercover legislation enforcement agent $80,000 to bypass restrictions on a bridge protocol that froze a number of of his transactions. This transaction allowed him to unlock $500,000 in stolen cryptocurrency.

KyberSwap Exploit and Extortion Try

In November 2023, Medjedovic allegedly executed an exploit concentrating on KyberSwap, a outstanding DeFi protocol on Ethereum and Arbitrum. By manipulating the protocol’s liquidity swimming pools, he drained roughly $48.8 million throughout 77 swimming pools. 

Following this exploit, Medjedovic tried to extort KyberSwap builders, traders, and members of its decentralized autonomous group (DAO) with a fraudulent settlement proposal.

Regardless of the indictment, Medjedovic stays at massive. Regulation enforcement companies, together with the Netherlands’ Public Prosecution Service and the Dutch Nationwide Police Cybercrime Unit, are actively trying to find him. If convicted, he faces as much as 20 years in jail for one another expenses, with a most sentence of 10 years for laptop harm.

This indictment highlights a rising pattern of cyber-enabled monetary crimes inside the crypto market as authorities worldwide intensify efforts to trace and prosecute such actions.