Israeli Extradited to US for $190 Million Crypto Heist

The birth name Block, accused of exploiting a security vulnerability to steal millions in cryptocurrency, was extradited from Israel to the United States early Thursday. Block, born the birth name, is one of hundreds implicated in a breach of the Nomad crypto system in August 2022. According to the extradition request, he personally withdrew approximately $2.8 million in tokens. The total theft from the breach amounted to nearly $190 million.

Block, who holds both Israeli and Russian citizenship, immigrated to Israel in 2017 but reportedly spent significant time abroad, including in Africa. On April 29, 2025, he legally changed his name from the birth name to Block and received a new passport the following day. On May 1, 2025, two days after the name change, he was arrested at Ben Gurion Airport while attempting to board a flight to Russia.

The US extradition request states that in late July 2022, Block discovered a weakness in the Nomad system, which is based in the US and facilitates the exchange of cryptocurrencies between different blockchain networks. The system locks original coins and issues tokens in return. Prosecutors allege Block modified the computer code that verifies coin locking, causing the system to issue him digital representations without any deposited collateral.

On August 1, 2022, after confirming the system did not detect his modification, he withdrew tokens worth about $2.8 million from Nomad's wallet. He subsequently converted these tokens into various currencies and transferred them across multiple digital wallets to obscure their origin. The Nomad hack was one of the largest and most chaotic in cryptocurrency history. After the initial exploit, news spread on social media, leading hundreds of users to replicate the attack by substituting their own wallet addresses and withdrawing funds without requiring advanced technical knowledge.

Nomad reported that over 300 wallet addresses participated in the exploit, draining nearly all assets from the system. A Coinbase study indicated that approximately 88% of the participating addresses belonged to "copycats" who collectively stole about $88 million. The majority of the high-value tokens were withdrawn by two original attacker addresses. Following the breach, Nomad offered hackers a 10% reward if they returned the remaining funds, ultimately recovering about $36 million.

According to the extradition request, Block contacted Nomad's CTO under a false identity after the hack, apologizing, returning a small portion of the funds, and demanding a $500,000 reward for finding the vulnerability. After Nomad offered him 10% of the stolen assets, he ceased communication. US prosecutors filed an eight-count indictment against him in 2023, including computer fraud and money laundering. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison, a sentence significantly harsher than what he might have received under Israeli law. An Israeli district court declared Block eligible for extradition, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court, which set precedents regarding the broad interpretation of "computer material intrusion" to include exploiting security flaws and programming errors. The court also ruled that the public nature of blockchain networks does not preclude money laundering charges, as wallet holder identities remain anonymous and transactions are difficult to trace.

Block's petition for a further hearing before the Supreme Court president was subsequently denied. Attorney Avi Kronenberg from the State Prosecutor's Office International Department handled the extradition case.