‘Axie Infinity’ Game Hacked for $540M in Crypto

Sky Mavis, a crypto startup operating the popular “Axie Infinity” game, said hackers had stolen over $600 million worth in cryptocurrency, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday (March 29).

Sky Mavis said hackers had infiltrated the company on March 23, getting into a part of its Ronin Network, which the game runs on, and gaining access to accounts holding cryptocurrencies. Hackers then drained 173,600 ether and 25.5 million of the USD stablecoin.

This was the second-biggest crypto hack ever, according to analysis firm Elliptic.

“The breach happened due to social engineering, not technical flaw,” said Aleksander Larsen, chief operating officer and co-founder of Sky Mavis.

Ronin said in a statement that it’s currently working alongside numerous government agencies to help solve the crime. Ronin added that it’s talking with Sky Mavis on how to move forward and make sure no user funds are lost.

The assets were worth around $540 million on the date of the theft and are worth around $615 million now, according to the report. Users are also reportedly unable to withdraw or deposit funds to the Ronin network, but Larsen said Sky Mavis will make sure that all the drained funds are recovered and reimbursed.

Sky Mavis also recently shared a link which showed the stolen funds were still in the hacker’s wallet, with the firm saying it’s working with analytics firm Chainalysis to track where the funds are.

“Axie Infinity” was launched in 2018 and is part of a small number of play-to-earn crypto games, which center around the buying, trading and selling of virtual assets backed by non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The games have represented an early foray into the metaverse — the virtual reality world that various companies have been trying to turn into an immersive world where people can interact outside of reality.

PYMNTS recently wrote that North Korea has been using cash from government-sponsored hacking groups who have performed crypto thefts.

See also: North Korea Uses Hacking Groups to Steal Crypto Assets

Mandiant, which works on combating cybercrime, said the isolated country has been stealing digital assets, as opposed to its last focus on stealing COVID vaccine research.