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In a recent court case reported by Le Monde, the accused individuals involved in the $8.5 million hack of Platypus Finance, an Automated Market Maker protocol on the Avalanche blockchain, have been cleared of all charges. The court ruled that French criminal law does not technically outlaw hacks of protocols, leading to the dismissal of the case. This decision has raised concerns about the difficulty of prosecuting crypto exploits. The accused, Mohammed and his brother Benamar, were captured by authorities shortly after the cyberattack on the financial platform. The court determined that Mohammed’s usage of unlicensed and publicly accessible smart contracts did not constitute an illegal computer system breach. Additionally, using Platypus’s defective emergency withdrawal mechanism to siphon tokens did not meet the legal standards for fraud. Surprisingly, Mohammed and Benamar admitted their involvement in the crime while posing as “ethical hackers” during a court hearing. Ethical hackers, also known as white hat hackers, collaborate with organizations to identify and fix security vulnerabilities in computer systems. The accused argued that they planned to return the stolen money to Platypus in exchange for a 10% reward, claiming to be conducting white-hat work. The brothers were identified by French authorities with the help of crypto investigator ZachXBT and support from Binance. Mohammed was charged with several offenses related to the assault, while his brother was charged with receiving stolen property. During the flash loan attack, Mohammed made a crucial mistake that resulted in the unintentional lockup of millions of dollars’ worth of stolen cryptocurrency. Only $270,000 was recovered, but Platypus Finance counter-hacked and managed to retrieve $2.4 million in stablecoin USDC. Blockchain security company CertiK found that the hack occurred in three parts, stealing different sums of cryptocurrency. Platypus has experienced multiple hacks, with losses exceeding $2 million. However, an agreement reached with the hacker allowed Platypus to recover 90% of the stolen funds. The court’s decision to drop the criminal charges against the defendants is a significant development in the legal proceedings and highlights the complexity of internet-related crimes. Following the news of the hackers’ acquittal, the price of AVAX, the cryptocurrency associated with Platypus, has increased by 3.8%. At the time of writing, AVAX was selling at $22.88.