Uranium crypto exchange hacker convicted for stealing $53 million

Jonathan Spalletta, also known as 'Jspalletta' and 'Cthulhon', was convicted of hacking the decentralized crypto exchange Uranium Finance in April 2021, exploiting flaws in its smart contract code to steal approximately $53.3 million in cryptocurrency. In the first attack, he exploited a vulnerability to issue zero-token withdrawal commands and drain $1.4 million, later extorting a 'bug bounty' of nearly $386,000. Three weeks later, he exploited another coding error—causing transaction verification to use 1,000 instead of 10,000—enabling him to withdraw nearly 90% of the exchange's liquidity pools. Spalletta laundered the stolen funds through Tornado Cash and decentralized exchanges, leading to the collapse of Uranium Finance.

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