Prosecutors request February or March retrial for MEV bot brothers

Anton and James Peraire-Bueno, two brothers indicted for their alleged role in money laundering and fraud involving a $25 million exploit of the Ethereum blockchain, could face a second trial as early as February.

In a Monday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, lawyers representing the US government requested a federal judge schedule a retrial for the Peraire-Bueno brothers “as soon as practicable in late February or early March 2026.”

The request came about three days after a judge declared a mistrial in the case, following the jurors’ inability to reach a verdict.

The brothers were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to receive stolen property related to their role in using maximal extractable value (MEV) bots to exploit $25 million in digital assets in 2023.

The case drew attention from many in the crypto industry for the possible ramifications of a guilty verdict on trading on Ethereum. The brothers could still face decades in prison if they were to be found guilty at retrial.

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What could change in a second trial?

Jurors took more than three days to deliberate before reporting to the judge that they were unable to reach a verdict. During that time, the jury asked several questions clarifying statements in testimony offered at trial, as well as the definition of “good faith.”

“Yesterday, half of the jury spontaneously broke down in tears, and several members of the jury have reported multiple nights of sleeplessness,” according to a letter filed on the public docket on Monday. “While this is a lesser concern, we have all endured the financial and psychological hardship of being sequestered from our jobs and family for nearly a month.”

As of Wednesday, the judge had not announced a possible retrial date.

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