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25/02/25
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U.S. Authorities Seize $31 Million in Cryptocurrency Linked to Uranium Finance Hack
U.S. authorities have successfully confiscated $31 million in cryptocurrency connected to the notorious April 2021 hack of Uranium Finance, a now-defunct decentralized finance platform. The seizure was part of a coordinated effort involving the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and Homeland Security Investigations in San Diego. While the details regarding the identity of the hackers remain undisclosed, authorities have encouraged victims of the incident to reach out for assistance.
Launched on April 1, 2021, Uranium Finance was a fork of the popular automated market maker Uniswap on the BNB Chain. Unfortunately, the platform’s website went offline shortly after the April 28, 2021 hack, and it has remained silent on social media since April 30 of that same year, leaving affected users with little recourse. In the wake of the incident, speculation arose that the breach could have involved insiders, according to one of the administrators from Uranium’s Discord channel.
The hack exploited vulnerabilities within the platform’s v2 smart contracts, allowing the attacker to artificially inflate the project’s balance by a factor of 100, leading to the extraction of significant funds. The total amount stolen was approximately $50 million, with about $36.8 million in BNB and Binance USD at the time. Additionally, the hacker obtained a substantial amount of other cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, Polkadot, Tether, Cardano, and Uranium’s native tokens.
Subsequent to the attack, the hacker laundered the funds through crypto mixer Tornado Cash and transferred the assets to centralized exchanges. Notably, the security of the platform was already under scrutiny due to a prior hack on April 8, 2021, which resulted in the theft of $1.3 million, prompting the creation of a new version just days before the larger exploit occurred.
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