Ethereum NFT game Axie Infinity hacked for $622 million


Earlier this
week Vietnam-based blockchain gaming company Sky Mavis which launched
Axie Infinity in 2018 declared that Axie Infinity was hacked. To breach the
security, the attacker used private keys to drain about $622 million worth of
crypto funds from a blockchain project linked the popular online game Axie
Infinity through the bridge connecting Ronin to Ethereum.
Ronin Network is
the blockchain that is used for the popular Ethereum NFT game Axie Infinity. Its
products include a digital wallet for storing crypto and a “bridge” that lets
users transfer crypto in and out of the game. This is where the crypto was
stolen from. On March 23, the actual attack occurred which went unnoticed for
days until almost a week later. The company Sky Mavis detailed that it became
aware of the problem when a user attempted to withdraw 5,000 ETH worth of funds
from Ronin. On Tuesday Sky Mavis found that the attacker drained 173,600 ETH and
25.5 million USDC stable coins. During the discovery, the value of stolen
cryptocurrencies was around $622 million.
As per the investigation, in the attack five of the nine validator nodes that sign
transactions on the sidechain were accessed by the attacker. Meanwhile, bridge
and the Katana decentralized exchange are temporarily shut down said the company, Sky Mavis. In addition, developers have promised to recover or reimburse all
funds stolen. Judging by the amount of money stolen, the Ronin attack is the
second-largest Defi hack of all time.
Soon after the
security breach, Sky Mavis has decided to delay its long-awaited upgrade “Axie
Infinity: Origin,”. It was initially scheduled to launch on Friday as an alpha
version but now it got delayed by a week postponing to April 7. On the same day, the co-founder of Axie, Jeff “Jiho”
Zirlin appeared onstage at the NFTLA conference and spoke about Axie’s
optimistic vision for the future. At the conference, he said, “It is one of the
bigger hacks in history and we’re fully committed to continue building.”

Indrani bose
CBW - External Analyst
INDIA