The US Department of Justice is in the process of retrieving $680,000 linked to cryptographic exploits and repaying stolen funds through a vulnerability in the Safemoon smart contract.
DOJ recovers exploited funds in Safemoon attacks
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that it has returned more than $680,000 in cryptocurrency, which was seized on June 12th, to cryptocurrency. This case focuses on vulnerabilities in Safemoon’s liquidity pool mechanism, which was exploited in March 2023 to artificially inflate token prices.
The United States pursued the confiscation of civil assets in its absence of criminal charges and recovered a significant portion of the funds that were diverted. DOJ confirmed:
The US is in the process of using forfeiture of civil assets to collect and clear titles into more than $680,000 stolen cryptocurrencies and returning those funds to the victims.
The attempt to theft lay on programming flaws in Safemoon’s smart contracts that allowed token burn, an operation that distorted market value, the Department of Justice explained. Another trading bot intercepted the lawsuit, reroute the profits to its own operator, was its own country operator, then contacted Safemoon and negotiated to maintain 20% of the funds. The FBI later intervened.
DOJ details:
On May 15, 2023, the FBI seized $680,467.92 and 480.996 BNB from the account of OKX, a cryptocurrency exchange platform that represents about half of the 20% forced by Safemoon.
“Safemoon has since filed for bankruptcy, but the funds have been returned to Safemoon’s bankruptcy councillor,” the DOJ revealed.
Neither the first attacker nor the BOT operator was deployed or charged, prompting the use of civil litigation to regain the assets. The forfeiture process allowed any party to challenge the claim in front of a federal judge.
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