Here’s what happened in crypto today. 2024-04-12
A software engineer who hacked smart contracts on two decentralized exchanges was sentenced to three years in prison in New York. Chinese fraud victims are turning to the United Kingdom government for help with recovering over $4 billion worth of Bitcoin seized by authorities. Meanwhile, an upcoming Ethereum upgrade will introduce a “social recovery” feature for wallets, potentially making lost private keys a thing of the past.
Crypto exchange hacker receives prison sentence
Computer engineer Shakeeb Ahmed was sentenced to three years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release for his role in flash loan attacks on two decentralized exchanges.
The sentence was handed down in the Southern New York District Court, with U.S. Attorney Damian Williams claiming it was the first conviction for a smart contract hack. Ahmed was also ordered to forfeit $12.3 million and a large portion of his crypto holdings, with part of the proceeds going toward a $5 million restitution payment for the affected exchanges.
Ahmed was the hacker behind the flash loan attacks targeting Crypto Exchange and the Nirvana exchange in 2022. At the time, Nirvana’s NIRV stablecoin depegged from the U.S. dollar, with its native token, ANA, plunging by 85%.
The court also claimed that Ahmed laundered the hacked funds using Monero, overseas crypto exchanges, and crypto mixers.
Fraud victims want China to recover $4.3 billion worth of $BTC
A group representing the scam victims reportedly submitted a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China requesting it to negotiate with the U.K. government to recover the seized Bitcoin.
The funds were taken through a $6.2 billion investment scheme conducted by Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology from 2014 to 2017.
U.K. authorities seized the cryptocurrency after former hospitality worker Jian Wen attempted to launder funds by buying a $30 million mansion with BTC. The purchase failed when Wen could not explain the source of the funds.