$25 million Ethereum MEV exploit puts ‘Code Is Law’ on trial
The trial of two brothers, Anton and James Peraire-Bueno, began yesterday at New York’s SDNY courthouse. The brothers, both in their twenties, were charged in May last year with “conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.” The charges relate to a $25 million exploit of maximal extractable value (MEV) bots on Ethereum which took place in April 2023. The brothers are expected to argue that their actions were in line with the Ethereum’s “economic incentives” and all they did was “outsmart some ‘predatory’ automated trading bots,” Business Insider reports. Yesterday’s jury selection was covered by Inner City Press’ Matthew Russell Lee who will continue to live-tweet the trial. Read more: US indicts Ethereum validators for exploiting MEV trader The charges The complaint says the Peraire-Bueno brothers “fraudulently gained access to pending private transactions and used that access to alter certain transactions and ob...