Founder’s Wallets Hacked in Axie Infinity Incident, Ronin Chain Untouched

Founder’s Wallets Hacked in Axie Infinity Incident, Ronin Chain Untouched

Crypto News – Jeffrey Zirlin, one of the co-founders of Sky Mavis, the company behind the popular game Axie Infinity, recently disclosed that two of his personal wallets were compromised during the early hours of Friday morning in Asia. However, he assured the community that the security breach did not impact the integrity of the Ronin chain.

According to reports from blockchain security firm PeckShield, a significant “whale wallet” fell victim to the breach, resulting in the unauthorized withdrawal of approximately 3,248 Ether, valued at around $9.7 million. The stolen funds were subsequently transferred to the crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

Zirlin took to a forum to address the incident, emphasizing that the attack was isolated to his personal accounts and did not pose any threat to the validation or functionality of the Ronin chain. He further clarified that the compromised keys were unrelated to the operational aspects of Sky Mavis.

Aleksander Leonard Larsen, Zirlin’s counterpart and co-founder of Sky Mavis, echoed similar sentiments regarding the security of the Ronin Bridge. Larsen assured the community that the bridge remained unaffected by the incident and emphasized that such wallet compromises were not uncommon across various blockchain networks.

This incident comes in the wake of a previous security breach on the Ronin chain, where hackers exploited vulnerabilities to the tune of $625 million in March of the previous year. Investigations later revealed that the perpetrators were associated with the North Korea-backed Lazarus Group, who gained unauthorized access through sophisticated email-based phishing tactics.