The State Attorney’s Office of Israel officially extradited Alexander Block to the United States on Thursday, October 30, 2026. The dual Israeli-Russian national, formerly known as Alexander Gurevich, alias ‘Bitlik,’ faces trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on eight counts: four for computer fraud, one for transportation of stolen property, and three for money laundering connected to the Nomad bridge protocol exploit.
Block’s attempt to flee was cut short at Ben Gurion Airport in May 2025 as he prepared to board a flight to Russia. The arrest occurred shortly after he legally changed his surname and obtained a new passport under a fresh identity.
Six Test Runs Before the Mass Looting
The U.S. extradition request details the origins of the Nomad cross-chain bridge exploit. A software update in June 2022 left a fatal flaw in the network’s smart contracts. The bug allowed anyone to withdraw tokens on one blockchain without locking an equivalent asset on the origin chain.
Block exploited the loophole through six test transfers before executing four primary transactions on August 1, 2022. Through these actions, he drained more than $2.8 million worth of tokens, moved them across multiple digital wallets, and swapped them into other crypto assets to obscure the transaction trail.
Block’s actions exposed the security flaw to the public. Other users quickly replicated the exploit pattern without requiring advanced technical skills, sparking a mass looting frenzy that drained over $186 million in user assets from Nomad’s reserves. Days after the incident, Block returned a small fraction of the tokens and reached out to senior Nomad officials via Telegram to demand a bug bounty payout before unilaterally cutting off contact.
Collapse of the ‘Code is Law’ Defense at the Supreme Court
During appeal proceedings in Israel, Block’s defense invoked the code is law doctrine. Block argued that he was merely executing functions permitted by Nomad’s automated system, asserting that the transactions should not be treated as criminal offenses.
Supreme Court President Isaac Amit and the judicial panel flatly rejected that argument. The ruling establishes a significant legal precedent: intentionally exploiting a smart contract programming defect constitutes unauthorized computer intrusion, even if the underlying software code allowed the transaction to proceed.
The court also dismissed the defense argument that public transactions on a blockchain defeat money laundering charges. The judges emphasized that on-chain transparency does not automatically establish wallet ownership or erase the criminal intent to disguise the illicit origin of the funds.
For the victims, fund recovery has been limited. Nomad operator Illusory Systems previously agreed to a proposed settlement with the FTC in December 2025 to return $22 million in funds seized post-incident. That amount represents only a fraction of the $186 million lost during the mass exploit.
Now, a new passport and a changed name have failed to shield Alexander Block from the law. The man who sparked the looting of the Nomad protocol must now face a federal court in California to answer for his actions.
Reported by Decrypt.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
