Back in April 2021, Uranium Finance—an automated market maker (AMM) running on Binance Smart Chain, fell victim to a devastating hack. A flaw in its smart contract, which surfaced during an upgrade to Version 2.1, allowed an attacker to drain liquidity pools. Around $50 million in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance USD (BUSD), Tether (USDT), and other tokens simply vanished.
The hacker didn’t stick around to admire their handiwork. They moved fast, running the stolen funds through Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer that jumbles transactions, making it nearly impossible to track where the money ends up. They also used AnySwap, a cross-chain bridge, to move assets between networks.
And in one of the more bizarre turns, blockchain investigator ZachXBT suggested that some of the stolen funds might have even gone toward buying rare Magic: The Gathering trading cards.
The recovery of $31 million is a step in the right direction, but it’s still far from the full amount lost. SDNY has urged affected investors to reach out via [email protected] for more information.
The hack’s timing has also fueled speculation of an inside job. It happened right after Uranium’s V2.1 launch, and shortly after, the project’s contract repository disappeared from GitHub. Was this just a convenient coincidence, or was someone on the inside pulling the strings?
Even though hackers have become more sophisticated in covering their tracks, this recovery shows that authorities are catching up. The message is clear, laundering stolen crypto isn’t as easy as it used to be. While this doesn’t erase the damage done, it’s a sign that justice is slowly catching up with crypto criminals.