Sky Mavis COO Promises to Reimburse Players After Hackers Steal $625 Million

Sky Mavis, the company behind the popular play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, has pledged to reimburse players after hackers stole $625 million (roughly Rs. 4,730 crore) from the underlying Ronin Ethereum sidechain. Aleksander Leonard Larson, co-founder and chief operating officer of Sky Mavis, has since tweeted that the crypto company is committed to ensuring all of the drained funds are recovered or reimbursed. Hackers reportedly stole around 173,600 Ether and $25.5 million in USDC on March 23. According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, this is the second-largest cryptocurrency hacker theft on record.

“We are fully committed to reimbursing our players as soon as possible,” Aleksander Larsen, chief operating officer of Sky Mavis, told Bloomberg. “We’re still working on a solution, that is an ongoing discussion.”

“The easiest way to look at this is like the bridge is the bank for the Ronin Network,” Larsen said. “The heist that happened took out all the ETH and USDC. So, the ETH/USDC on Ronin Network is not currently backed by anything. But we are looking at other options.”

The Ronin Network published a blog on Tuesday explaining that a hacker compromised its network, exploiting the company for 173,600 Ether and 25.5 million USDC stablecoins.

“We are working with law enforcement officials, forensic cryptographers, and our investors to make sure all funds are recovered or reimbursed,” Ronin Network wrote. “The attacker used hacked private keys in order to forge fake withdrawals.”

Larson called the hack “a social engineering attack combined with a human error” in a Wednesday tweet, adding that Ronin plans to add additional validators to boost decentralisation.

“Sky Mavis has also retained Chainalysis to ensure that any of the stolen ETH moved from this Ethereum address will be tracked,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like the hacker will have much luck cashing out.”

Funds stolen in the crypto hack include “deposits of players and speculators and the Axie Infinity Treasury revenue,” Larsen added. The attack happened on March 23, but the company only discovered it Tuesday.

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