The blockchain Roninthe basis of crypto scampi in the NFT game Axie Infinityhas been compromised: $ 600 million in ether and USDC stolen. But Ronin ensures that he is hard at work recovering funds and reimbursing users.
$ 600 million worth of crypto stolen from Axie Infinity
The announcement of the breach comes from the Ronin blockchain, which yesterday announced the theft immediately. But in reality the attack took place on March 23, perhaps even earlier. In fact on that date a user of Axie Infinity he wanted to withdraw five thousand ether that he had invested in the game, without succeeding.
From there the sensational discovery. Someone stole well 173,600 ether and USDC 25.5 million, stable crypto linked to the value of the US dollar. In total, the theft is worth $ 600 million, the largest suffered by the Ronin blockchain. And one of the greatest ever: last year Poly Network it had seen a $ 610 million theft, then largely returned.
At the moment Ronin announces that he is at work with “law enforcement, expert cryptographers and our investors to ensure that all funds are recovered or repaid ”.
According to the analysis, the money was drawn from some kind of link between Ronin ed Ethereum, of which Ronin is a branch (a sidechain). In fact, it is on Ethereum that they remain deposited ether e USDC. Once deposited, cryptocurrencies are used to purchase items within Axie Infinity. By selling them, you get crypto.
Ronin explained that four of the five validator nodes the game uses have been compromised. The attacker would have exploited a mode for the free distribution of items to new players, established a last November but closed already in December.
Axie Infinity ha commented saying that although no transactions can be made at the moment, they have every intention of moving forward. Nearly three million people every day they play this game in NFT. We will keep you updated to see if users will regain access to their funds.