Ethereum court case in New York to decide the future of ‘bots trading’

You’ve probably seen advertisements for it on crypto sites. There’s something called “bot trading” nowadays where an AI does the trading for you. The technology detects which cryptocurrencies will rise or fall according to a prescribed algorithm, buys or sells them, and then sends the profit to you. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work.

But if you knew in advance which cryptocurrencies those bots would buy, why not create a worthless cryptocurrency, sell it to a few bots for millions of dollars, and pocket the profit?

🔴 BREAKING — MIT BROTHERS CHARGED IN $25 M ETHEREUM HEIST EXECUTED IN 12 SECONDS ⚡

💻 Anton and James Peraire-Bueno, MIT graduates, allegedly exploited a flaw on Ethereum, stealing $25 million in seconds.
🔍 The trial raises a critical question: was it a tech vulnerability or… pic.twitter.com/smm1rTvFMr

— ©️NuBills (@NuBills) October 14, 2025

In the situation described above, there appears to be no victim, until the investors using the bots realize what is happening of course. That’s the crux of the lawsuit against the Peraire-Bueno brothers, who made millions in Ether by knowing (for 12 seconds only) which digital currencies the trading bots would buy.

Mathematics

Apparently, you can do a lot with math, even tricking trading bots into buying something worthless. Two young brothers from Manhattan, both math whizzes, studied trading bots on crypto sites and tried to figure out how they decided to buy new cryptocurrencies. They then created some coins themselves, boosted their prices, and the bots bought them, only to find them falling in price quickly after their purchase. They sold the worthless coins to the bots in Ethereum, raking in millions of dollars in profits. The entire operation took 12 seconds, turned the young brothers into millionaires and resulted in significant losses for several wealthy investors.

Those investors are now filing a lawsuit against the brothers in a Manhattan courthouse. It will be very interesting to see what a judge will decide, as this is practically the first lawsuit of its kind.