One of the largest NFT games in the world was recently hacked, losing hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.
Every day, around 2 million users log into the NFT game Axie Infinity to look after their virtual charges. After a hack, the company is now on the brink.
“There has been a security breach… “
During a hacking attack on the popular NFT game Axie Infinity, attackers have captured over 600 million US dollars in cryptocurrency. The attack took place on 23 March, but only became public now when users tried to withdraw some of their digital currency and received error messages. A total of 173,600 Ethereum and 25.5 million USDC were stolen, which together have an equivalent value of approximately 612 million US dollars.
Ronin confirmed the incident on Twitter and froze all accounts to prevent further unwanted withdrawals. They also explained what steps are currently being taken to get the money back and track down the perpetrators. Ronin was set up by Axie Infinity developers Sky Mavis to facilitate transactions within the game.
There has been a security breach on the Ronin Network.https://t.co/ktAp9w5qpP
– Ronin (@Ronin_Network) March 29, 2022
Only two transfers needed
According to the developers of Ronin, private keys were used in the hack to gain access to the system. Through two fake transactions, the perpetrators were able to debit the incredible sum unnoticed. Currently, the company is working with law enforcement, crypto analysts and their investors to recover the money.
In Axie Infinity, cryptocurrency is used to raise and trade Pokémon-like Axie. Each Axie is an NFT with its own appearance and code stored in the blockchain. Whether Vietnamese developer Sky Mavis will recover from this massive financial and trust loss remains to be seen.
