After a groundbreaking legal proceeding, Shakeeb Ahmed, a former security engineer, was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for a series of sophisticated hacks on two decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges (DEXs), making history as the first-ever smart contract hacking conviction in the United States.

The court also ordered Ahmed to forfeit the stolen crypto assets and pay restitution to the affected exchanges, totaling more than $12 million in stolen funds and over $5 million in compensation.

According to official documents, Ahmed executed two separate attacks on the DEXs, employing his expertise as a senior security engineer. The first attack, which occurred July 2 and July 3, 2022, and involved manipulating fake pricing data to extract approximately $9 million in inflated fees.

In a bold move, Ahmed reached out to the targeted exchange, offering to return the stolen funds minus a $1.5 million 'cut' for himself, under the condition that law enforcement would remain uninvolved.

The saga continued with a second attack on July 28, 2022, against Nirvana Finance. Exploiting a flaw in the platform's smart contracts, Ahmed purchased crypto assets at artificially low prices and resold them at a higher value, leading to the platform's financial collapse.

Despite Nirvana's offer of a $600,000 bug bounty for the return of the stolen assets, Ahmed demanded $1.4 million, showcasing the predatory nature of his actions.

The investigation into these crimes uncovered Ahmed's use of advanced money laundering techniques to hide the origins of the stolen funds.

This included complex operations across multiple blockchains and cryptocurrency mixers, illustrating Ahmed's sophisticated methods for evading detection.

"No matter how novel or sophisticated the hack, this Office and our law enforcement partners are committed to following the money and bringing hackers to justice," stated US Attorney Damian Williams.

Ahmed's conviction marks a pivotal moment in the fight against cybercrime within the cryptocurrency space and highlights the ongoing vulnerabilities faced by decentralized finance platforms.

As Ahmed begins his three-year sentence, the crypto community is left to reflect on the implications of this historic conviction for the security and resilience of decentralized technologies.