Axie’s Ronin Suffers Major Hack! | $600 Million Stolen by Hackers
In what could be considered the biggest heist not just in the P2E gaming space but in the entire cryptocurrency sector, Sky Mavis lost over $600 million worth of assets after unidentified hackers exploited certain vulnerabilities in the Ronin system on March 29, Tuesday.
CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS
At the time of writing:
- Sky Mavis has halted the Ronin bridge and Katana Dex.
- They are working with relevant authorities to make sure all funds are recovered or reimbursed. Additionally, prosecution of the hackers has began.
- All of the AXS, RON, and SLP on Ronin have been secured.
- The hacker has transferred over 6,000 ETH to other addresses. Though most of the funds hacked still remain in the original wallet.
- The company is now trying to find ways to get back on track after this incident and is currently in consultation with investors, advisers, and stakeholders.
- Security fixes are now in place. It is safe to say that most people, if not everyone on the Sky Mavis team, are now focusing all of their efforts to mitigate any current and future issues related to this incident.
Here is what Sky Mavis has to say regarding the incident:
“As we’ve witnessed, Ronin is not immune to exploitation and this attack has reinforced the importance of prioritizing security, remaining vigilant, and mitigating all threats. We know trust needs to be earned and are using every resource at our disposal to deploy the most sophisticated security measures and processes to prevent future attacks.”
Finally, here’s their update regarding the current status of the Ronin network:
“As of right now users are unable to withdraw or deposit funds to Ronin Network (sic). Sky Mavis is committed to ensuring that all of the drained funds are recovered or reimbursed.”
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LATEST UPDATES
- Winners will still receive their rewards for S20 of the competitive Axie ladder.
- Sky Mavis is still conducting a stringent forensics review.
- Huobi, one of the world’s major crypto exchanges, has expressed its support for Axie Infinity in the wake of the hacking incident.
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CONTEXT
173,600 Ethereum and 25.5M USDC… They’re huge numbers, especially if you put them together in context: $625 million.
With that money, a person could buy one of the following:
- 625 high-end, fully furnished condominium units
- Three to four frigates (at the cost of $150-200 million)
- 2500 Ferrari cars (pegged at $250,000 per car)
- Money to operate Vladimir Putin’s Scheherazade (one of the world’s most luxurious luxury yachts) for 10 years
- Buy over 30 million sacks of rice plus transportation and importation fees
- Get over 55 million bushels of wheat plus transportation and importation fees
That’s the sheer amount of money we’re talking about here. Nevertheless, there’s a lot of confidence that the company could easily come back from this unfortunate set of events.
To give a rough idea of how big Sky Mavis is: the company earns an estimated $5 million per day on its worst days, according to Naavik. And back in October 2021, its value was already tethering at over $3 billion.
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IMPACT
The markets have reacted to the news, and RON’s value plummeted in the past 24 hours since the announcement.
Sky Mavis will reimburse all affected holders in the aftermath of the hack, .
In addition, as the company stated in its release, it will implement more stringent security measures for its assets. After all, A blow to Axie Infinity will also affect the overall global P2E ecosystem.
Let’s just hope that Sky Mavis and the P2E gaming ecosystem come back stronger from this setback!
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