Axie Infinity Returns To Business And Will Reimburse Victims Of $625 Million Hack
Axie Infinity is an online pay-to-earn game, developed by Vietnam-based Sky Mavis, in which players collect and trade digital pets known as Axies which are minted as NFTs. In April, hackers ran off with millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency stolen from Axie Infinity by a group called Lazarus that the FBI says is sponsored by the North Korean state. But now Axie Infinity is back in business.
What's more, Sky Mavis said that it would start reimbursing the victims of the hack. However, since the service uses Ethereum, which has dropped in value significantly over the past three months, users will only be getting around a third of their losses back. In total, Sky Mavis will be returning $216.5 million in funds (thanks Engadget).
Related: Why is NFT game Axie Infinity so popular?
The hackers were able to steal away millions by harnessing flaws in the Ronin network which Axie Infinity uses to enable speedier transactions. Somewhat boldly, Axie Infinity will maintain its Ronin network but in a blog post the company said that it has implemented a new "circuit breaker" that will flag "large, suspicious withdrawals" as well as imposing withdrawal limits and employing human reviewers. A new land staking feature that the company says will allow Axie Infinity players to earn passive income from digital land will be released soon.
Sky Mavis warned users not to send funds to Ronin Bridge's smart contact adress directly. "The Ronin Bridge should only be accessed and used for deposits/withdrawals through the Ronin Bridge UI. Any funds sent directly to the Ronin Bridge's contact addresses will be permanently lost", its blog post said.
Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Axie Infinity's user base has dropped 40 percent
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