MIT Siblings Accused in $25M MEV Exploit to Stand Trial After Judge Rejects Dismissal Motion
Prosecutors allege that the Peraire-Bueno brothers used a method akin to a “bait-and-switch” attack
Two Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) educated brothers, Anton and James Peraire-Bueno, are set to face trial over their alleged involvement in a sophisticated MEV exploit that netted them nearly $25 million in just 12 seconds.
A US federal judge recently denied their motion to dismiss the fraud charges, allowing the case to proceed and potentially setting a key precedent for how the US will prosecute digital asset-related exploits.
Flash Exploit, Flash Consequences.
The case centers around a high-frequency trading strategy known as MEV, or Maximal Extractable Value. According to the Department of Justice, the brothers manipulated MEV bots programs that scan the blockchain for profitable transaction opportunities to trick them into executing trades that resulted in massive gains for the defendants and losses for others.
Additionally, prosecutors allege that the Peraire-Bueno brothers used a method akin to a “bait-and-switch” attack. They carefully crafted a series of Ethereum transactions that deceived MEV bots into engaging in trades the bots believed were arbitrage opportunities. Once engaged, the bots were outmaneuvered by the brothers’ pre-programmed contract logic, siphoning millions in crypto assets to their wallets within seconds.
Judge Rejects Dismissal.
The defense argued that the case was fundamentally a dispute over “clever coding” rather than fraud. The brothers claimed that their actions were legal under the open-source, permissionless nature of the Ethereum network and that the court should not treat them as engaging in wire fraud under traditional statutes.
However, the federal judge rejected this interpretation, ruling that the indictment sufficiently alleged a scheme to defraud and misappropriate assets under false pretenses. The court emphasized that while blockchain ecosystems are new and complex, the legal principles of fraud still apply if deception and intent to steal are provable.
Implications for Crypto and MEV Exploit
The outcome of this case could significantly impact how the US legal system treats blockchain exploits that rely on sophisticated smart contract interactions rather than traditional hacking or theft.
Legal experts note that this is one of the first major federal cases targeting MEV-related manipulation. A successful prosecution could open the door for further regulatory scrutiny of blockchain-based financial strategies and potentially redefine what constitutes fraud in decentralized finance (DeFi).
Meanwhile, the crypto community remains divided. Some argue the brothers merely “played the system better than the bots.” In contrast, others view the incident as a clear case of bad-faith manipulation that undermines trust in DeFi infrastructure.
