"Crypto Heist: Canadian National Allegedly Steals $48.8M from KyberSwap"

Federal authorities allege that a 22-year-old Canadian national, Andean Medjedovic, exploited a "glitch" in the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol KyberSwap to steal approximately $48.8 million in cryptocurrency. According to an indictment unsealed on Monday in a federal court in Brooklyn, Medjedovic allegedly took advantage of vulnerabilities in the KyberSwap code in 2023.

Prosecutors claim that Medjedovic borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto to manipulate the prices in KyberSwap's liquidity pools (LPs). He then allegedly triggered a "glitch" in the protocol's automated market maker (AMM) by executing a specific sequence of trades, allowing him to drain $48.8 million in crypto from 77 LPs across six public blockchains.

Following the alleged heist, Medjedovic attempted to extort KyberSwap developers, demanding control of the protocol and its associated decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in exchange for returning half of the stolen crypto. Prosecutors also accuse Medjedovic of attempting to launder the looted crypto through bridge protocols and a digital asset mixer.

Medjedovic is also suspected of exploiting liquidity pools from another DeFi protocol, Indexed Finance, in 2021, stealing approximately $16.5 million. The indictment charges Medjedovic with wire fraud, computer hacking, and attempted extortion. As of now, Medjedovic remains at large.