$615 Million In Crypto Stolen From Game ‘Axie Infinity,’ One Of Biggest Thefts Ever

'Axie Infinity' (Image: Sky Mavis)

A hacker has gotten away with nearly $615 million from a blockchain network connected to the popular videogame Axie Infinity in one of the biggest crypto thefts to date.

Ronin, the blockchain network, didn’t find the hack until a week later when a user tried to withdraw funds and was denied.

“There has been a security breach on the Ronin Network,” the company announced on its Substack. “Earlier today, we discovered that on March 23rd, Sky Mavis’s Ronin validator nodes and Axie DAO validator nodes were compromised resulting in 173,600 Ethereum and 25.5M USDC drained from the Ronin bridge in two transactions.”

Axie Infinity is one of the most popular games to use cryptocurrency. The game is based around NFT digital pets and users can move funds in and out of the game.

Ronin’s released a blog post explaining how the hack was able to happen.

“The Axie DAO allowlisted Sky Mavis to sign various transactions on its behalf,” Ronin said. “This was discontinued in December 2021, but the allowlist access was not revoked. Once the attacker got access to Sky Mavis systems they were able to get the signature from the Axie DAO validator by using the gas-free RPC.“

Ronin has temporarily shut down transactions, but they vowed to make sure that users’ funds were safe.

“We are working with law enforcement officials, forensic cryptographers, and our investors to make sure that all funds are recovered or reimbursed,” said a Tweet on Ronin’s official account.