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Blockchain: Sky Mavis commits to reimbursing players after ‘Axie Infinity’ $625M hack

Photo by: Axie Infinity Website

Sky Mavis, the owner and developer of the blockchain-based play-to-earn game “Axie Infinity,” made a pledge to return the funds of players after hackers stole $625 million from Ronin Blockchain, where the game runs.

According to CoinDesk, the stolen millions include deposits of “Axie Infinity” players and speculators. The earnings from the Axie Infinity Treasury are also affected by the hacking incident, according to Aleksander Leonard Larsen, Sky Mavis’ chief operating officer.

The company revealed that the hackers discovered a backdoor in a Ronin node and applied the hacked private keys to withdraw the funds. The crooks’ haul included $25.5 million in USDC and 173,600 ether (ETH).

“We are committed to ensuring that all of the drained funds are recovered or reimbursed, and we are continuing conversations with our stakeholders to determine the best course of action,” the company’s spokesman told CoinDesk in a statement.

“Axie Infinity” was said to have generated $1.3 billion in the last 12 months, up to February this year. And the hackers were able to steal almost half of this after they exploited a security weakness on the Ronin blockchain via the software that allows people to convert tokens into ones. The withdrawals were said to have been done in two transactions during the breach on March 23 but were only discovered a few days later.

Larsen told Bloomberg that they are currently working on a way to reimburse the players as soon as possible. He added that they are not suspecting an inside job behind the multi-million heist.

Meanwhile, Sam Peurifoy, Hivemind Capital’s head of interactive and leads the Kapital DAO in “Axie Infinity,” suggested that one of the solutions that Sky Mavis could raise funds for reimbursement is to sell some of the Axie-related digital tokens in bulk but at discounted prices to major players.

The company can also sell its equity, or the Axie community can start a poll where people can vote on whether to liquidate funding from Axie’s community treasury or not. Peurifoy said that the treasury has a total net worth of $1.6 billion as of today. Then again, Sky Mavis is the one making the final decision, and it is not clear what it is planning to do to raise funds.

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