Sky Mavis, the creator of the renowned play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, has successfully recovered $5.7 million linked to last year’s Ronin Bridge hack, with substantial aid from Norwegian law enforcement.
The company revealed that Norway’s Økokrim, a central unit for combatting economic and environmental crimes, played a key role in freezing and returning the stolen funds on June 7.
The recovery operation involved collaboration between various parties, including law enforcement, legal teams, accountants, and blockchain forensic experts like Chainalysis.
Sky Mavis expressed gratitude towards both the Norwegian government and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation for their efforts in tracking down and securing the assets.
Sky Mavis disclosed their plans for the retrieved funds, stating, “15% of recovered assets will be used to cover costs and expenses incurred by those involved in the recovery efforts.
The remaining 85% of recovered funds will be deposited into the Axie Infinity treasury.”
This move aims to reallocate the funds back into the game’s operational budget, while also compensating those who contributed to the recovery efforts.
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Further developments in the ongoing case include the freezing of an additional $40 million in digital assets by law enforcement, though Sky Mavis indicated that reclaiming these funds could be a lengthy process without a definitive timeline for their return.
The Ronin Bridge incident, which occurred on March 29, 2022, remains one of the most significant security breaches in the cryptocurrency realm.
The breach involved the unauthorized withdrawal of 173,600 Ether and 25.5 million USD Coin, valued at $612 million at the time, using compromised private keys.
In response to the financial impact on users, Sky Mavis raised $150 million in April 2022 through a funding round led by Binance to compensate affected stakeholders.
Post-incident, the company has enhanced the security of the Ronin blockchain, integrating additional validators including Google Cloud, to bolster its defense against future attacks.
Despite the setback, Ronin continues to be a prominent blockchain platform for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), currently ranking third in all-time NFT sales behind leaders Solana and Ethereum.
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