Israel extradited Alexander Block to the United States early on Thursday 29 October, the State Attorney’s Office announced, according to the Jerusalem Post and Decrypt. Block, an Israeli and Russian citizen formerly named Alexander Gurevich, is accused of taking more than $2.8 million in the 2022 Nomad bridge hack. He has been charged, not convicted, and the extradition decides nothing about his guilt.
The transfer ends a fight of almost 18 months that began with his arrest at Ben Gurion Airport in May 2025. It also leaves behind a ruling that matters beyond this one man. Israel’s Supreme Court rejected his appeal in March, and the Israeli press reports its finding that exploiting a programming flaw can be unlawful intrusion into computer material even when the software technically let the action through.
The handover was coordinated by the prosecution’s International Department with the Israel Police operational coordination and Interpol units, the Jerusalem Post reported. Advocate Avi Kronenberg of that department handled the case, according to Calcalist.
Nomad bridge hack extradition: $2.8 million alleged, not the whole drain
Two numbers travel together in this story and they must not be merged. The US accuses Block of receiving tokens worth more than $2.8 million. The far larger sum left Nomad, a cross-chain bridge, through other people. According to the facts set out in the Supreme Court judgment, the US request says his transactions exposed the flaw, and others then drained over $186 million from a wallet holding users’ funds. Neither the judgment nor the reports on the transfer say he is charged over that copycat drain.
| Figure | What it is | Source |
|---|---|---|
| More than $2.8 million | What Block is accused of receiving, in four main transfers around 1 August 2022 (May 2025 reports said roughly $2.89 million) | Judgment; Decrypt; Jerusalem Post |
| Over $186 million | What others drained after the flaw became visible; not attributed to Block | Judgment; Calcalist; FTC |
| Nearly $190 million | The round figure used for the Nomad hack in earlier coverage | Jerusalem Post, May 2025 |
| About $100 million | What consumers lost after recoveries, according to the US regulator | FTC, December 2025 |
Israel’s Supreme Court rejected “the code allowed it” at the extradition stage
Justices Grosskopf, Kabub and Kasher heard the appeal on 22 January 2026, and the judgment is dated 8 March. By then the dispute had narrowed to two conditions for extradition.
The first was a prima facie case. Israel’s Extradition Law requires enough evidence to prosecute, and the judgment treats that as a low bar: evidence that is not worthless on its face will do, with no deep look at its weight or reliability and no finding that it would secure a conviction. The second was dual criminality. The conduct must also be an offence in Israel, punishable by at least a year in prison, though the Israeli and US offences need not match exactly.
The defence argued that the calls used functions available in Nomad’s automated system, that the US request does not allege he changed code or got round a security mechanism, and that a public ledger undercuts any claim of concealment. The state answered that sending the wrong command altered the contracts’ code, which amounts to disruption or penetration, and that converting, moving and splitting tokens shows an attempt to hide their origin.
The conclusions below are as reported by the Jerusalem Post, Calcalist and Decrypt on 29 and 30 October. The copy of the judgment carried by Afik Law, which is not the court’s own site, gives the same reasoning in an English rendering.
The first holding answers the argument that the code allowed it: exploiting a programming flaw can amount to unlawful intrusion even if the software technically permitted the action. Calcalist reports that the term “intrusion” was read broadly enough to cover security flaws and programming errors. In the judgment the court compares this to a cash machine with a manufacturing defect that pays out without a card: the maker’s mistake does not make the withdrawal lawful. It also recalls an earlier case holding that an unlocked house is still protected, and adds that calling software a smart contract does not take away its legal protection.
The second holding concerns the blockchain itself. A public record of transactions does not by itself show who controls a wallet or rule out concealment, so the laundering allegation could stand for extradition purposes. The judgment notes that wallet details are visible while their holders stay hidden, and cites US affidavits saying some of the conversions had no economic purpose.
All of this answers a question of Israeli law, on the evidence needed to extradite. It does not settle what a US jury would make of the same facts. Our reading, and it is only that: the “code is law” line failed as a shield here, at one threshold, in one country.
From a 2023 indictment to a 2026 transfer
A federal grand jury in the Northern District of California indicted him on 16 August 2023, according to the judgment. There are eight counts: four of computer fraud, one of transporting stolen property and three of money laundering. Decrypt and the Jerusalem Post match that total. The Jerusalem Post reported in May 2025 that five of the counts carry up to 10 years and a $250,000 fine each, and that money laundering carries up to 20 years, the limit written into 18 U.S.C. 1956. Those are ceilings set by law, not a forecast of any sentence.
| Date | Step |
|---|---|
| 16 August 2023 | US indictment in Northern California |
| 10 December 2024 | US extradition request |
| 29 April 2025 | Surname changed to Block (passport in the new name on 30 April) |
| 1 May 2025 | Arrest at Ben Gurion Airport, about to leave for Russia |
| 14 July 2025 | Jerusalem District Court declares him extraditable |
| 22 January 2026 | Supreme Court hearing |
| 8 March 2026 | Supreme Court judgment rejecting the appeal |
| Date not reported | Request for a further hearing denied by Supreme Court President Isaac Amit |
| 29 October 2026 | Extradition to the United States |
The Jerusalem Post and Decrypt report Amit’s refusal without dating it. The name-change and flight details come from the Jerusalem Post’s May 2025 account, and the airport arrest and new surname are repeated in this week’s coverage.
The US Justice Department announced another extradition on 23 October, Zheng Zhao’s from the Netherlands, in a separate case with no link to Nomad.
What US prosecutors allege happened in August 2022
Everything in this section is an allegation, taken from the US request as summarised in the judgment and the Israeli press. None of it has been tested at trial.
A Nomad software update in June 2022 left a flaw, the judgment says: calling one contract function, process(), rather than proveAndProcess(), let a user receive tokens on one chain without the matching funds being locked. Calcalist reports that the US request says Block found this in late July 2022 and altered the code that checks assets are locked. His defence told the Supreme Court the request makes no such allegation of changing code.
Using the handle “Bitlik”, he allegedly made six test transfers, depositing funds in Nomad’s wallet at the same time so the flaw would go unnoticed, then four main transfers around 1 August. Prosecutors say he converted the tokens into other cryptocurrencies and moved them across wallets to hide where they came from.
The alleged aftermath is where the case touches bug bounties. Days later he allegedly returned some tokens, contacted a senior Nomad official on Telegram and offered to give back the rest in exchange for payment for finding the bug, before he stopped replying. Nomad went to US law enforcement, Calcalist and Decrypt report.
The Jerusalem Post gave more detail in May 2025, citing the US extradition request. The first contact, on 4 August 2022, was with chief technology officer James Prestwich and made under a false identity. Block allegedly said he had sent about $162,000 to a recovery wallet Nomad had set up and asked for a $500,000 reward, and Prestwich replied that Nomad would pay 10% of the value of what was taken. These are the request’s claims, and this week’s reports do not repeat them.
Bridges remain a repeat target: this week an attacker took under $800,000 from zkLink Nova’s Ethereum contracts. Our guide to how cross-chain bridges work explains why locked funds sit in one place, which is what makes a checking error so costly.
Nomad’s own record: the FTC case
The company behind the bridge faced its own US case. On 16 December 2025 the Federal Trade Commission announced a proposed consent order against Utah-based Illusory Systems, which did business as Nomad, on a 2-0 vote. The FTC alleged that the firm’s “security-first” claims were not followed, that inadequately tested code went live in June 2022 and was exploited a little over a month later, and that its slow response added to the losses.
The order would ban security misrepresentations, require an information security programme with independent assessments every two years, and require the return of recovered money not yet handed back. Once final, each violation could cost up to $51,744. Public comments closed on 20 January 2026, according to the Federal Register. On 30 October neither the Federal Register nor the FTC’s press releases showed a final order, so its current status is unconfirmed.
No US court date has been reported
The reports on the transfer rest on the Israeli prosecution’s announcement. No US court date has been reported, and no statement from the US Justice Department had surfaced by the evening of 30 October. Nor has an arraignment, a plea, a detention decision or an assigned judge been reported. The coverage carries no statement from Block or his lawyers on the transfer, and the defence case available so far is the one recorded in the Israeli proceedings.
He is presumed innocent, and the burden of proof in any US trial would fall on prosecutors. The next step to watch is a first appearance in the Northern District of California, where the indictment was filed.