U.S. prosecutors have requested a federal judge to schedule a retrial for Anton and James Peraire-Bueno, two brothers accused of laundering and stealing $25 million from the Ethereum blockchain through a 2023 trading exploit. In a filing to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, government lawyers asked for the new trial to begin as soon as practicable in late February or early March 2026, following a mistrial declared after jurors failed to reach a verdict following over three days of deliberation.
The brothers face charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and receiving stolen property, with prosecutors alleging they used maximal extractable value (MEV) bots to front-run Ethereum transactions and siphon digital assets within seconds. The case has drawn widespread attention in the crypto industry, as a conviction could establish how U.S. courts apply traditional fraud statutes to blockchain-based exploits.
Jurors reported significant strain during the first trial, with half of the jury spontaneously breaking down in tears and members experiencing sleeplessness and financial hardship from nearly a month of sequestration. A retrial could set a precedent for how MEV extraction and smart-contract manipulation are treated under law, potentially influencing regulatory approaches and developer practices in decentralized markets.
