A man from Maryland has been charged by U.S. prosecutors for allegedly stealing more than $53 million by hacking the Uranium Finance cryptocurrency exchange twice and then laundering the funds.
Jonathan Spalletta, 36, also known online as “Cthulhon” and “Jspalletta,” appeared in court after turning himself in to authorities. The case was heard by U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang.
According to prosecutors, Spalletta carried out two attacks in April 2021 on Uranium Finance, a decentralized exchange that worked similarly to Uniswap. The attacks drained most of the platform’s funds and forced it to shut down.
During the first hack on April 8, Spalletta reportedly exploited a flaw in the exchange’s smart contract system. He manipulated a variable to withdraw funds he was not entitled to, taking around $1.4 million. Afterward, he pressured the platform into labeling part of the stolen money, about $386,000, as a fake “bug bounty” in exchange for returning some of the funds.
Just weeks later, on April 28, he launched a second and much larger attack. This time, he took advantage of a coding error where the system used 1,000 instead of 10,000 in its calculations. This mistake allowed him to withdraw nearly 90 percent of the assets from 26 liquidity pools while depositing almost nothing. In total, he stole about $53.3 million, which was most of the exchange’s holdings.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton stated that the case shows crypto crimes are still real crimes, and victims suffer real financial losses. He also pointed to messages where Spalletta allegedly dismissed crypto as “fake internet money.”
After the theft, Spalletta is accused of laundering the funds through decentralized exchanges and the Tornado Cash mixer. He then spent the money on high-value collectibles, including a rare Black Lotus Magic card worth about $500,000, sealed Alpha Booster packs worth around $1.5 million, a complete first-edition Pokémon set for about $750,000, and an ancient Roman coin valued at over $600,000.
In February 2025, authorities seized these items from his home and recovered around $31 million in cryptocurrency linked to him.
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If convicted, Spalletta could face up to 10 years in prison for computer fraud and up to 20 years for money laundering.
