Key Takeaways
- US Authorities have seized over $31 million worth of crypto tokens related to the 2021 hacking of Uranium Finance.
- The stolen assets successful retrieval was made possible through the joint operation of Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) and SDNY.
- Based on the recent X post made by SDNY, the victims can still retrieve their stolen assets as long as they come forward and contact them.
The Uranium Finance hack is one of the most infamous hacks of the crypto community. Almost 5 years into it, the authorities have finally managed to close in on the perpetrators behind it and retrieve over 60% of the crypto assets from them. This delayed justice was announced through a recent post on the X account of the SDNY.
This article will delve deeper into the 2021 Uranium Finance hack and the seizing of $31 million worth of crypto assets. Furthermore, we will also look into whether the victims can finally retrieve their stolen assets or not.
The 2021 Uranium Hack
It was in April of 2021 that the Uraniuk Finance Project, an Automated Market Maker on the BNB chain fell victim to a smart contract hack. The attack resulted in the loss of over $50 million worth of crypto tokens from the project’s pair contracts. Perpetrators behind the attack utilized the vulnerability behind the Uranium’s v2 contracts after its update in early April 2021.
After sending the required tokens into Uranium’s “pair contracts”, the attacker emptied the liquidity pools for multiple token pairs, managing to steal $18 million each in BNB and BUSD, $9 million worth of tokens from Ethereum and BTCB pools, $6.7 million in USDT, and $1.7 million worth of tokens in DOT, ADA, and Uranium’s token.
What Happened To Uranium: A Detailed Analysis of the Attack
Uranium Financem, an AMM marker on the BNB chain, launched its first version of its platform on the 1st of April 2021. Just a week after its launch, attackers exploited the Uranium v1 protocols and managed to steal over $1.3 million worth of BNB and USDT. This prompted them to release a second version of the platform on the 16th of that month.
After just 12 days of its launch, the attackers struck again. This time exploiting bugs within its software code and easily stole $50 million worth of crypto assets. Two days after the attack, all their social media account went dead, signaling the end of the project. The victims of the attack suffered from this the most cause they had no idea whether they would get back their funds or not, especially with the project abandoning them.
US Authorities Siezes $31 Million In Crypto
On 24 February 2025, US Authorities seized over $31 million worth of crypto tokens related to the 2021 hacking of Uranium Finance, which is currently defunct. After four long years since the widely known hacking incident, the authorities finally managed to close in on the culprits.
It was the Southern District of New York (SDNY) that announced the seizure of crypto assets through an X post on Monday, 24th February 2025. Based on the latest reports, the successful recovery of the stolen assets was through the joint operation of Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) and SDNY.
The authorities haven’t disclosed any additional information on the matter, not even who was behind the operation or how they caught up to them after all this time. However, they specified one important thing. It is that if you are a victim of the infamous hacking incident, contact them at their official site.
Will The Uranium Hack Victims Get Their Money Back?
At the time of the hack, even though it was one of the largest hacks of that time, the authorities didn’t manage to do anything. As a result, a lot of people were left with little to no answer. Uranium’s abrupt closing hasn’t also helped much, leaving its community to spend for themselves.
But it all changed on the 25th of February 2025, when the SDNY issued a post on X saying they recovered $31 million from the Uranium Finance hack, rejuvenating the faith of a lot of crypto enthusiasts out there. The SDNY’s post on X specified that there is still a chance that the Uranium hack victims will get their money back.
For this, the SDNY has created a separate website: “[email protected]” for the victims to contact them. However, the authorities have only managed to recover about 61% of the original stolen assets, so the victims might not get the full amount back and it may take some time as they need to verify the victims’ claim before issuing the asset back to them. For further updates surrounding the matter, stay tuned.
