Nearly four years after the Uranium Finance hack shook the DeFi world, U.S. authorities have made a breakthrough, recovering $31 million in stolen cryptocurrency.
The Southern District of New York (SDNY) announced the recovery on Monday, working alongside Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in San Diego.
SDNY and @HSISanDiego seized cryptocurrency linked to the April 2021 Uranium Finance hack. Victims are encouraged to contact UraniumVictims@hsi.dhs.gov.
In April 2021, Uranium Finance, an automated market maker (AMM) on Binance Smart Chain, was exploited due to a flaw in its Version 2.1 upgrade. The vulnerability allowed hackers to drain $50 million worth of BTC, ETH, BUSD, USDT, and other tokens.
The attackers quickly laundered the funds using Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer, and AnySwap, a cross-chain bridge. In a bizarre twist, blockchain investigator ZachXBT suggested that some of the stolen funds might have been spent on rare Magic: The Gathering trading cards.
Despite the recovery of $31 million, nearly $19 million remains missing. SDNY urged affected investors to come forward.
Speculation of an inside job lingers, as the hack coincided with Uranium’s V2.1 launch and the sudden removal of its contract repository from GitHub. Whether this was a coincidence or internal sabotage remains uncertain.
This recovery highlights authorities’ growing ability to track and seize stolen crypto, sending a clear message—laundering stolen digital assets is no longer as easy as it once was.
