12 seconds. It doesn’t seem like much time, but in the blazingly fast world of the Ethereum blockchain trading environment, it’s long enough for countless cryptocurrency trading deals to go down. In the case of a 2023 $25 million transaction, was it an instance of high-speed bait-and-switch or just a digital version of a better mousetrap built by a pair of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) educated brothers?
Deciding the answer to that question was the task given to a jury of five men and seven women in a Manhattan federal court, but they were unable to come to a unanimous verdict on exactly what laws James Peraire-Bueno and Anton Peraire-Bueno were guilty of breaking, if any. After receiving a second notice of a deadlocked jury on November 7, 2025, U.S. District Judge Jessica Clarke declared a mistrial.
The Southern District of New York’s failure to pin the crypto heist on the Peraire-Bueno brothers underscores the challenges of regulating crypto trading and crypto fraud. The jury reportedly struggled with applying crimes like wire fraud and money laundering to transactions made on the Ethereum network. The anonymity embraced by cryptocurrency traders didn’t make things easier, as two of the three alleged victims have neither come forward nor been identified.
A meticulously plotted crime that included searches for “how to wash crypto,” and “what is the statue (sic) of limitations,” or just another battle of the bots that plague cryptocurrency trading? For now, the answer remains elusive.
Not Gonna Lie, Things Are Going To Get a Bit Technical Now
Terms like “bitcoin” and “MEV-Boost” getting tossed around make the world of crypto trading difficult to understand for many. It can often sound like the Wild West, but the lack of regulation and government control is what makes it appealing to crypto traders. To try to make sense out of all this, let’s start with the 12 seconds that opened this article.
The Ethereum blockchain is exactly what its name suggests — an ever-growing chain of blocks that consist of carefully ordered transactions. A new transaction block is added every 12 seconds. These include orders to buy and sell cryptocurrency. The orders waiting to be processed and added are part of what’s called a mempool. The mempool is also home to a type of predatory program called a “sandwich bot,” which looks to strike during the 12 seconds the transactions are waiting to be added.
A sandwich bot finds a waiting order and places orders before and after the victim’s order is fulfilled. This can include buying the desired crypto before the order to drive up the price, then selling it after the victim’s order goes through. This renders the victim’s purchase worthless, while the sandwich bot scoots away with all the profits. However, the current lack of regulation for cryptocurrency trading means that the legality of the “trading strategy” is an ill-defined gray area.
According to prosecutors, the Peraire-Bueno brothers figured out a way to scam the scammers. Anton, who graduated from MIT in 2024 with degrees in computer science and engineering, and James, with a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering a few years prior, developed a trap that exploited a vulnerability in the sandwich bots. After months of planning, they put their 12-second plan into action.
Dangling themselves as bait, their proposed order was gobbled up by three separate sandwich bots. However, the sandwich bots were then ambushed by other bots belonging to the brothers. Acting as validators, they made use of a glitch in the mempool programming to inject rows of zeros, which allowed them to seize the sandwich bots instead. This made it possible to transfer the $25 million worth of cryptocurrency the attackers were going to use to drive up the price to the Peraire-Buenos’ accounts instead. The sandwich bots were left with useless crypto referred to as “sh*tcoins.”
Hiding in Plain Sight
At no point in the four-week trial did Anton and James deny what they’d done. Rather, they argued that their out-botting others wasn’t illegal. Attorneys for the Department of Justice (DOJ) disagreed, charging that the brothers’ extensive planning and execution of a scheme to tamper with a crypto transaction constituted wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and money laundering. To gain a conviction, they needed the jury to determine how these offenses could be applied to actions taken on the Ethereum blockchain.
To the dismay of prosecutors, the jury was unable to reach a consensus over three days of deliberation. They made two requests that Judge Clarke declare a hung jury, with members claiming loss of sleep and tears shed over the difficulty of trying to reach a verdict. At the center of their failure was an inability to determine that the brothers willfully made a fraudulent misrepresentation in order to steal someone else’s money in this precedent-setting case.
It’s unknown whether the DOJ will seek to prosecute the brothers again, as a series of recent losses indicates that regulating crypto will continue to be difficult, confusing, and vexing. If they do, at least the Peraire-Buenos can afford good attorneys.
Related Resources
- FTX Trading Founder Sam Bankman: Fried or Freed? (FindLaw’s Courtside)
- What Are Digital Assets? (FindLaw’s Estate Planning Basics Resource)
- Crypto Firms Bullish as SEC Drops Lawsuits and Investigations (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
