Last week, Ronin, the blockchain network linked to the popular play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, was hacked, resulting in the loss of almost $600 million in cryptocurrency.
The hack, which took place on March 23 but was found earlier Tuesday, resulted in the loss of 173,600 ETH (approximately $590 million at current rates) and 25.5 million USDC, according to engineers in a blog post. During the event, five of the Ronin network’s nine validators were attacked and taken control of. Validators are used for a variety of tasks, including creating transaction blocks and updating data oracles.
“Once the attacker gained access to Sky Mavis systems, they were able to use the gas-free RPC to obtain the signature from the Axie DAO validator,” the report added. After gaining control of those nodes, the attacker was able to syphon cash from the Ronin bridge. Bridges are software systems that allow funds to be transferred across blockchains.
Sky Mavis, the creator of Axie Infinity, created Ronin. Sky Mavis “found the security weakness on March 29th, after a report that a user was unable to withdraw 5k ETH from the bridge,” according to the blog post. According to the report, this Ethereum address holds the majority of the cash. The address has been detected as “reported to [be] involved in a hack attacking the Ronin bridge” by Etherscan.
The team stated:
“We are collaborating with a number of government entities to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice. We’re talking to Axie Infinity/Sky Mavis stakeholders on how to go forward in the best possible way while ensuring that no users’ money is lost.”
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