Israel Sends Alleged Crypto Thief Alexander Block to the U.S. for Nomad Bridge Fraud Case

Extradition of Alexander Block

In a significant development, Israel has sent an Israeli-Russian individual, Alexander Block, to the United States for his alleged involvement in a substantial theft connected to the cryptocurrency bridge, Nomad. Block, who previously went by the name Alexander Gurevich, was taken into custody at Ben Gurion Airport in May 2025. He was reportedly preparing to board a flight to Russia at the time of his arrest after having recently changed his surname and acquired a new passport.

Legal Proceedings and Charges

The State Attorney's Office of Israel confirmed on Thursday that Block's extradition was finalized after his attempts to appeal the extradition were unsuccessful. His indictment by a federal grand jury in Northern California occurred in August 2023, encompassing charges of four counts of computer fraud, one count of moving stolen property, and three counts related to money laundering.

The U.S. authorities requested Block’s extradition in December 2024. According to the details outlined in the extradition request, a software update to Nomad's systems in June 2022 inadvertently introduced a vulnerability that enabled users to claim tokens on one blockchain without corresponding locks on the requisite assets in another blockchain. Block allegedly exploited this flaw under the online alias "Bitlik", executing six test transactions before conducting four successful transfers that netted him tokens valued at over $2.8 million around August 1, 2022.

Impact of the Exploit

Following the initial transactions, Block purportedly laundered the tokens through various digital wallets and exchanged them for other cryptocurrencies, allegedly to hide their original source. His actions reportedly led other users to exploit the same vulnerability, resulting in the draining of around $186 million from Nomad's wallet shortly thereafter.

In an intriguing turn, Block reached out to a Nomad official via Telegram a few days after the exploit, proposing to return the stolen tokens for a reward, only to later sever communication. This prompted Nomad to alert U.S. law enforcement agencies.

The August 2022 incident had devastating repercussions for Nomad, almost depleting its financial reserves. In December 2025, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a settlement requiring Nomad's parent company, Illusory Systems, to reimburse users who had not yet been compensated, as $186 million had been lost to hackers due to a poorly tested software update. While Nomad managed to recover about $22 million shortly after the hack, the fallout from the incident underscored significant vulnerabilities in cryptocurrency bridge systems.

Judicial Rulings

The Jerusalem District Court sanctioned Block’s extradition in July 2025, rejecting his claims during appeals that he had merely used Nomad’s intended functions and that the public nature of blockchain transactions contradicted the money laundering allegations. The Supreme Court of Israel concluded that exploiting a software glitch could still equate to unauthorized computer access, regardless of the program’s built-in functionalities.

Furthermore, they affirmed that visibility of blockchain transactions does not automatically reveal the identities behind the wallets nor negate efforts to obscure the source of funds. This ruling culminated in the Supreme Court's denial of Block's request for another hearing.