US authorities have made significant progress in combating cryptocurrency-related crime by seizing approximately $31 million linked to the 2021 Uranium Finance hack.
The announcement was made by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in San Diego this week, nearly four years after the attack.
Uranium Hack Seizure
The hack, which occurred on April 28, 2021, exploited a critical vulnerability in Uranium Finance’s smart contracts during its transition to the V2.1 protocol. The flaw in its pair contracts allowed the attacker to withdraw nearly all available assets.
This resulted in a theft of roughly $50 million in various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD), Polkadot (DOT), Cardano (ADA), Tether (USDT), and Uranium’s native token, U92.
Initially, suspicion surrounding the attack grew due to its timing, which occurred mere days after Uranium Finance launched its V2 upgrade. Adding to the controversy, the project’s contract repository was suddenly removed from GitHub, which led many in the community to speculate about potential insider involvement. Doubts about the platform’s security also intensified, especially since it had already experienced a $1.3 million breach earlier in the same month.
The attacker quickly laundered the stolen funds with the help of controversial crypto mixer Tornado Cash, and AnySwap, a cross-chain bridge, to transfer assets across blockchains. Despite these obfuscation attempts, law enforcement managed to recover a significant portion of the stolen funds.
Attacks on Crypto Platforms
The latest seizure comes as cryptocurrency-related cybercrimes continue to rise, with a recent high-profile hack targeting Bybit which lost an estimated $1.4 billion in crypto assets. The FBI has officially attributed the heist to North Korea, further cementing the country’s role in global crypto theft.
With total stolen funds in 2024 reaching $2.2 billion, this marks the fifth time in the past decade that annual losses have exceeded $1 billion. Interestingly, North Korea’s cybercriminal operations now account for 61% of the total stolen crypto this year and 20% of all hacking incidents,
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