USD 625 million worth of cryptocurrency, stolen from Ronin, the blockchain that powers the popular crypto game Axie Infinity.
This was confirmed by Sky Mavis, the manager of Ronin and Axie Infinity, who immediately froze transactions on the Ronin bridge, which previously served to bridge the storage and withdrawal of funds from the blockchain.
Sky Mavis claimed to have worked with the authorities to recover 173,600 Ethereum (currently worth around USD 600 million) and 25.5 million USDC (cryptocurrency attached to US dollars) stolen by hackers on March 23 last.
The hacker attack focused on the bridge to the Ronin blockchain, which mediates between Axie Infinity and other cryptocurrency blockchains such as Ethereum. Users can save Ethereum or USDC to Ronin, which can then be used to buy NFT items or in-game currency, and vice versa.
According to Sky Mavis, hackers used stolen private security keys to infiltrate network nodes and validate transactions to and from the Ronin blockchain. That way the hacker can secretly withdraw large amounts of Ethereum and USDC.
The theft was only realized today, Wednesday (30/3), exactly a week after it happened. That is after a user tried to withdraw 5,000 Ethereum through the bridge, as quoted by us from The Verge, Wednesday (30/3/2022).
However, Sky Mavis ensures that the 'axie' token needed to access Axie Infinity is not affected by this hacking action. Likewise with the in-game currency, namely SLP and AXS, which are used to fight and breed the Pokemon-like axolotls characters.
"As we have seen, Ronin is not immune to exploits and this attack further demonstrates the importance of prioritizing security, staying alert and mitigating all threats," Sky Mavis wrote in a statement.
"We know trust needs to be earned and we are using all available resources to create the most advanced security and prevent this kind of attack from happening in the future," he added.