In a major development following the April 2021 Uranium Finance cryptocurrency hack, which saw $50 million stolen through an exploit, authorities have recovered a significant portion of the lost funds.
The Southern District of New York (SDNY) and Homeland Security Investigations in San Diego have successfully seized $31 million in cryptocurrency linked to the hack. SDNY has also urged victims of the Uranium Finance breach to come forward and contact law enforcement officials.
Uranium Finance was an automated market maker protocol that operated on the BNB chain, formerly known as Binance Smart Chain. The platform encountered a severe security breach while transitioning to a new version of its protocol. The breach was a result of a bug within Uranium Finance’s smart contract, which allowed the attacker to exchange a single token for nearly the entire content of the protocol’s liquidity pool.
The protocol, which ceased operations following the hack, was originally a fork of SushiSwap, a well-known decentralized exchange on the Ethereum network. However, the Uranium team's failure to properly adapt the SushiSwap code left vulnerabilities that were exploited in the attack.
Following the hack, the perpetrator utilized the crypto mixer Tornado Cash to launder the stolen funds. Subsequent laundering efforts involved the use of "Magic: The Gathering" trading cards, as reported by the pseudonymous blockchain investigator ZachXBT.
The seizure of the $31 million in cryptocurrency represents a significant recovery for authorities in the ongoing efforts to address the consequences of the Uranium Finance hack. The SDNY's announcement underscores the importance of collaboration between victims and law enforcement in tracking and recovering assets lost to cybercrimes.
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