Sky Mavis, the company behind the popular play-to-earn (P2E) game Axie Infinity, has successfully recovered $5.7 million from the infamous Ronin Bridge incident of 2022 with the help of Norwegian authorities.
On June 7, Sky Mavis revealed that Norway’s economic and environmental crime-fighting unit, “Økokrim,” had frozen and returned the $5.7 million in funds from the Ronin Bridge hack. The company emphasized that this achievement was only possible through the collaborative efforts of law enforcement, lawyers, accountants, and blockchain forensic teams such as Chainalysis.
In a public statement, Sky Mavis expressed gratitude towards the Norwegian government and the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for their roles in tracking the funds and recovering the assets. The recovered funds will be added back to the Axie Infinity (AXS) treasury, but a portion will be used to cover the expenses incurred during the recovery process.
Additionally, Sky Mavis announced that an additional $40 million in digital assets has been frozen by law enforcement. The company acknowledged that the process of recovering these assets will be time-consuming and did not provide a specific timeline for their return.
The Ronin Bridge incident, which occurred on March 29, 2022, remains one of the most costly security breaches in the cryptocurrency realm. Following the breach, where 173,600 Ether (ETH) and 25.5 million USD Coin (USDC) were stolen, Sky Mavis raised $150 million in April 2022 to reimburse affected users. This funding round was led by crypto exchange Binance. To enhance the security of the Ronin blockchain, Sky Mavis has collaborated with additional validators like Google Cloud.
Despite the setback, Ronin continues to be a prominent blockchain for nonfungible tokens (NFTs). It currently holds the third position among top blockchains based on all-time NFT sales, trailing behind Solana and Ethereum.
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