U.S. Seizes $31M in Crypto from Uranium Finance Hack

U.S. authorities have seized $31 million in cryptocurrency linked to the April 2021 Uranium Finance hack, which resulted in $50 million in stolen assets.

The Southern District of New York (SDNY) confirmed the seizure in a post on X (formerly Twitter) Monday, urging victims of the Uranium Finance hack to contact law enforcement for potential restitution. The Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) team in San Diego was also involved in recovering the funds.

The Uranium Finance Exploit

Uranium Finance was an automated market maker (AMM) protocol built on the BNB Chain (formerly Binance Smart Chain). In April 2021, while migrating to a new version, the protocol suffered a critical exploit that allowed attackers to drain its liquidity pools.

Hackers took advantage of a bug in the smart contract, allowing them to swap a single token for nearly all the assets in the protocol’s liquidity pools.

While Uranium Finance was a fork of SushiSwap, its developers failed to properly adapt the code, leaving a vulnerability that ultimately led to the massive breach.

How the Hacker Laundered the Stolen Crypto

After stealing the funds, the exploiter initially laundered the assets through Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing service commonly used to obfuscate blockchain transactions.

However, in an unexpected twist, the hacker later turned to an unconventional laundering method—using “Magic: The Gathering” trading cards to further clean illicit proceeds, according to pseudonymous blockchain investigator ZachXBT.

What’s Next?

With $31 million now in U.S. custody, authorities are working to return funds to victims. This case highlights ongoing efforts by law enforcement to track down stolen crypto, even years after major exploits.

Victims of the Uranium Finance hack are encouraged to contact law enforcement officials to verify potential claims.

Despite the partial recovery, the incident remains one of the most infamous AMM exploits in DeFi history, underscoring the risks of improperly forked protocols and the evolving methods of laundering stolen crypto assets.