DOJ charges brothers with using MEV-boost software to steal $25 million

Author: William M. Peaster, Bankless; Translator: Tao Zhu, Golden Finance

Brothers Anton Pepaire-Bueno and James Pepaire-Bueno have been arrested for allegedly stealing $25 million in cryptocurrency through a complex arbitrage robot vulnerability on Ethereum.

Exclusive news point:

• The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has accused Anton and James of manipulating the MEV-boost software used by Ethereum validators to steal $25 million.

• Today, the federal court unsealed an indictment charging the brothers with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to launder money.

• They allegedly conducted a complex 12-second transaction tampering attack against the Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) robot, draining $25 million in stablecoins and other tokens from a range of liquidity pools.

Author's opinion:

This case is unprecedented in the United States, as it is the first time a federal court has dealt with an incident involving Ethereum MEV manipulation. Most people in the cryptocurrency space don't even know about MEV, so it will be key to see what attitude the United States holds. The government will explore this complex cutting-edge topic and whether similar cases will emerge.

In addition, this case has sparked a heated debate in the crypto community, with some arguing that it is hypocritical that MEV traders can legally launch a preemptive sandwich attack, while the U.S. Department of Justice appears to have accused the Peraire-Bueno brothers of being preemptive sandwich attackers.

The difference is that ordinary MEV users operate within the scope of public information and are subject to various rules. In contrast, the Peraire-Bueno brothers exploited previously unknown loopholes in the MEV boost, transcended these rules, and caused huge losses to other traders instead of unsatisfactory transactions.