The brothers, who were educated at the most prestigious universities in America, are accused of stealing 25 million dollars worth of cryptocurrencies in just 12 seconds.
Anton Perer-Bueno, 24, and James Perer-Bueno, his brother four years older, are charged with technology fraud and money laundering.
The US Department of Justice announced that this was the first recorded fraud of its kind.
Prosecutors say that the duo, who allegedly studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), carried out the fraud in April 2023.
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"The Perer-Bueno brothers stole $25 million worth of Ethereum cryptocurrencies using a technologically sophisticated, precise scheme that they spent months preparing and executed in seconds," said Deputy US Attorney Lisa Monaco.
She added that agents of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) played a key role in uncovering "the first fraud of its kind using technology in addition to money laundering."
In the prosecution, they believe that the two of them used the highly refined skills they acquired "at one of the world's most prestigious universities" and thus abused the process of verifying ethereum transactions.
The brothers studied mathematics and computer science and were both students at MIT, the indictment said, according to media reports.
"The scheme created by the defendants also calls into question the integrity of the blockchain," Damian Williams, the US attorney general, said in a statement on Wednesday, alluding to the public chain of cryptocurrency (blockchain) payments.
They allegedly robbed Ethereum owners by fraudulently gaining access to their private transactions and then redirecting those transactions to appropriate the victims' cryptocurrencies.
The process, which investigators call "abuse," lasted only a few seconds.
When contacted by an Ethereum representative, officials said the brothers refused to return the money and took steps to launder and hide it.
They each face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.
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