Two suspects in EtherDelta hack indicted by U.S. authorities

The United States attorney's office for the Northern District of California has indicted Elliot Gunton and Anthony Tyler Nashatka for hacking EtherDelta in December 2017. EtherDelta is a cryptocurrency exchange built on the Ethereum blockchain.

According to the indictment, Gunton and Nashatka modified EtherDelta's domain name system setting to defraud the exchange's users "to obtain their cryptocurrency address, private keys, and withdrew funds contained in those cryptocurrency addresses."

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The hackers were able to modify the domain name system setting by getting access to a phone number of an EtherDelta employee and using that phone number to access the employee's email. The duo then used the email to gain access to the domain name system account of EtherDelta, redirecting the website's traffic to a "fake website resembling the true EtherDelta platform."

Visitors to the fake website would have their private keys and cryptocurrency addresses stolen and their wallets withdrawn. According to the indictment, Gunton and Nashatka were able to steal at least $800,000 worth of cryptocurrencies from one EtherDelta user. The court documents did not provide details on the total amount stolen from the hack.

 

About Author

Steven Zheng is a researcher for The Block. He joined The Block in August 2018. Steven graduated from St. John’s University with a degree in economics. Previously, he covered blockchain and crypto at Radicle, a startup analytics firm. He also had brief stints at Cheddar, a media startup, and Bowery Capital, a venture capital firm. He owns bitcoin. Follow Steven on Twitter at: @Dogetoshi