The U.S. Department of Justice has charged a Canadian hacker with stealing $65 million from a DeFi protocol

According to ChainCatcher news reported by CryptoPotato, on February 3 local time, the U.S. Department of Justice charged 22-year-old Canadian hacker Andean Medjedovic with five counts, including telecommunications fraud, unauthorized damage to protected computers, extortion, and money laundering.

Prosecutors stated that Medjedovic hacked into two DeFi protocols, Indexed Finance and KyberSwap, between 2021 and 2023, stealing approximately $65 million in cryptocurrency by manipulating smart contracts.

The suspect argued that exploiting vulnerabilities in smart contracts was legal under the principle of "code is law," but this was rejected by U.S. prosecutors. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.