Sky Mavis, the operator of Ronin and the popular crypto game Axie Infinity, revealed that nearly $625 million worth of cryptocurrency has been stolen from Ronin. The company froze transactions on the Ronin bridge. That leads to allowing deposit and withdrawal of funds from the company’s blockchain.
With the help of law enforcement, Sky Mavis is working to recover 173,600 Ethereum which is currently worth $600 million. Also to return 25.5 million USDC (a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar) from the culprit. Who withdrew it from the network in March.
Clearly, the attack focused on the bridge to Sky Mavis’ Ronin blockchain, which is an intermediary between Axie Infinity and other cryptocurrency blockchains.
At that game, users could deposit Ethereum or USDC to Ronin. Then purchase NFT items or in-game currency. Or if they want, they could sell their in-game assets and withdraw the money.
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An attacker used hacked private security keys cleverly to compromise the network nodes, which validate transfers from and to the Ronin blockchain. By using that way, the attacker can quietly withdraw large quantities of USDCE and Ethereum.
Noone discovered the transfer until a week later when another user tried to withdraw 5,000 Ethereum through the bridge.
“Working with law enforcement officials, forensic cryptographers, and our investors to make sure there is no loss of user funds.” Which is as Sky Mavis said a “top priority.”
However, Sky Mavis will increase the number of nodes for transactions to eight. And once it’s certainly no more funds can drain, the company will reopen the Ronin bridge.
