A 22-year-old Canadian man, Andean Medjedovic, has been charged by U.S. federal prosecutors for allegedly hacking two cryptocurrency platforms, KyberSwap and Indexed Finance, stealing a staggering $65 million.
The indictment, unsealed this week, accuses Medjedovic of wire fraud, hacking, money laundering, and extortion.
Medjedovic, who holds a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Waterloo, allegedly exploited vulnerabilities in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
He is accused of manipulating liquidity pools on KyberSwap in 2023, executing sophisticated trades that created glitches on the platform, allowing him to siphon millions of dollars worth of digital assets.
A similar attack took place on Indexed Finance, where he is said to have altered market prices to steal funds.
Prosecutors revealed that Medjedovic attempted to extort KyberSwap’s administrators after the hack, offering to return half of the stolen funds in exchange for control over the platform’s governance.
Authorities also discovered plans on his computer to flee the country, along with instructions for securing a laptop to store the stolen funds.
His laundering attempts were thwarted when he unknowingly engaged with an undercover agent, transferring over $86,000 in illicit crypto.
This arrest highlights the growing risks in the DeFi space and raises important questions about the security of blockchain protocols.
