A landmark crypto fraud case involving two brothers accused of stealing $25 million through an alleged exploit on Ethereum has ended without a verdict.
After three days of deliberation, a fatigued and divided jury forced U.S. District Judge Jessica Clarke to declare a mistrial on Friday.
The case against Anton and James Peraire-Bueno marked the first criminal prosecution centered on maximal extractable value (MEV), a practice where traders profit from how transactions are ordered on Ethereum.
Prosecutors claimed the brothers went beyond normal MEV tactics, exploiting Ethereum’s validator layer to reorder transactions and siphon funds.
The Department of Justice called it “the very first exploit of its kind,” accusing the pair of undermining “the very integrity of the Ethereum blockchain.”
But the highly technical nature of the case and the challenge of fitting blockchain mechanics into traditional fraud statutes left jurors at an impasse.
“We have debated with each member being open… We are no closer to a unanimous decision. We are under stress. Some cried. Many have not slept,” the jury wrote in their final note, according to Inner City Press.
Prosecutors urged Judge Clarke to resume deliberations or replace a departing juror, but she refused. “This is their 11th note, no progress. I am going to declare a mistrial,” Clarke ruled.
The government must now decide whether to retry the case, seek a plea deal, or dismiss the charges altogether.
Tensions reportedly rose when prosecutors suggested that jurors could convict even if the defendants didn’t realize their actions were illegal, a claim the defence called “outrageous.”
The defence insisted intent, or mens rea, must be proven. Judge Clarke sided partly with prosecutors, telling jurors that “wrongful means a bad purpose” and that knowledge of illegality wasn’t required.
Observers say the mistrial highlights the growing tension between crypto’s open architecture and legal interpretations of fraud.
“This case was born of ignorance and fear,” wrote lawyer Carl E. Volz in DL News, calling it “a hangover from the Biden-era hyper-skepticism about crypto.”
The brothers maintain they operated within Ethereum’s rules. Backed by Coin Center, their defence argues that punishing non-standard validation methods “recalibrates blockchain incentives” and risks destabilizing the system.
MEV exploitation has emerged as a dominant threat to blockchain scalability, according to recent research from Flashbots.
According to a report covered by Cryptonews in June, MEV bots now consume 40% of all blockspace on Solana and over half of the gas usage on Ethereum rollups, such as Base and OP Mainnet.
The Peraire-Bueno case represents the first criminal prosecution of MEV manipulation; however, similar exploits continue to occur across various networks.
A Ronin Network breach in August 2024 initially appeared malicious but was later revealed to be a white-hat operation, with the hacker returning $9.8 million after discovering a vulnerability in the bridge.
