Are you curious about what happened with the Axie Infinity Cryptocurrency Theft? What happened and was the result of the hack?
The goal of this article is to explore the Axie Infinity Crypto theft and provide context around the theft, what happened, and the result of the theft.
Let’s start with understanding the players in the theft both the attacker and the victim.
What is Axie Infinity?
Axie Infinity is a non-fungible token-based online game developed by Sky Mavis, a Vietnamese company. Axie Infinity is a digital collectible game where you can catch, trade, and battle with your Axies.
The game uses the Ronin, an Ethereum sidechain to store each Axie’s data. The only way to get an Axie is by purchasing it from the marketplace, which is built into the game and Sky Mavis charges a 4.25% fee when they trade Axies’.
What is Sky Mavis who owns Axie Infinity?
Sky Mavis is the founder of Axie Infinity, a blockchain game. They are a Vietnamese company.
He was previously an executive producer at Electronic Arts and an associate producer at Sony Computer Entertainment America.
What is the Axie Infinity Cryptocurrency theft?
The Axie Infinity Cryptocurrency theft is one of the biggest security breaches in Blockchain history. It is reported that the hackers stole nearly $615 million in cryptocurrency. The hackers managed to compromise the company\’s wallet address and steal funds from a number of other users\’ wallets as well. Sky Mavis has hired CrowdStrike to investigate the theft.
According to the company\’s blog post, attackers compromised private keys that validate transactions on the network, which allowed the attackers to forge fake withdrawals. The attack went undetected until a user tried to withdraw funds and was unable to do so, and was reported. The network claims that no user’s funds were lost and the stolen funds are in the attacker’s crypto wallet. The company, Sky Mavis, is working with law enforcement to make sure the funds are recovered or reimbursed.
Who is being blamed for the Axie Infinity theft?
According to Ronin, the FBI has attributed the theft to the North Korea Lazarus Group which is controlled by North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau. The Bureau is North Korea’s intelligence bureau.
Who is the North Korea Lazarus Group?
The North Korea Lazarus Group, also known as the Lazarus Group, is an allegedly North Korean state-sponsored hacking group. The group has been widely suspected of attacking Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014 and of holding South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges to ransom in 2017.
What is the Ethereum Blockchain?
The Ethereum blockchain is a decentralized ledger that is used to store and execute smart contracts. It is a distributed database that can store everything from personal information to financial records. The Ethereum blockchain was created by Vitalik Buterin in 2013 and has been adopted by many people and companies since then.
What is an Ethereum Sidechain?
A sidechain is a separate blockchain that is attached to the main chain of Ethereum. The developers who create the sidechain can use code from Ethereum and make modifications to it as they see fit. This happens without affecting the main chain of Ethereum.
What is the Ronin network on the Ethereum Blockchain?
Ronin is an open-source, Ethereum-based sidechain that enables off-chain transactions for the Ethereum network.
The Ronin sidechain provides a way to do transactions without incurring any gas costs on the main chain.
It also provides a way to do fast and cheap microtransactions on the side chain.
The Problem with Cryptocurrency Theft on the Blockchain
The blockchain is a distributed ledger that enables the digital transfer of assets without an intermediary. It is a decentralized, public database that records transactions between two parties and eliminates the need for a third party to verify those transactions.
This technology has been touted as the future of banking, but it also has its problems.
One of the problems with this technology is that there are hackers who are trying to steal from people by hacking into their wallets and stealing their cryptocurrency. This can be done by simply guessing someone\’s password or by getting access to their private key, which would allow them to take all the funds in that person’s wallet.
The other problem with this technology is that because it is not regulated, there are no consumer protections if something goes wrong or if someone tries to steal
Cryptocurrency theft is a big issue in the blockchain industry. Some of the most popular cryptocurrency hacks include Mt Gox and Coincheck.
Mt Gox was one of the first-ever bitcoin exchanges to start trading. In 2014, it was hacked and 850,000 bitcoins were stolen from its customers. This hack cost Mt Gox\’s investors $450 million at that time.
Coincheck was hacked in January 2018 and lost $530 million worth of cryptocurrencies – NEM coins – to hackers who stole them from its digital wallets.
The blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that makes it possible for transactions to be recorded without being interfered with or changed by a third party. It can also be used as an immutable database of records without having to trust any central authority.
The problem with Crypto Theft is that it is hard to investigate and track because of the decentralized nature of the blockchain.
Conclusion
The purpose of this article was to explore and learn about the Axie Infinity cryptocurrency theft in March 2022. We explored the theft and context around the theft including understanding all the terminology and technologies used in this theft. We also discussed the attack itself and the result of the attack.
Thankfully, the company was able to track the theft and isolated it to the attacker’s wallet. The integrity of the blockchain was not comprised but stolen private keys were. Those keys could have been comprised in many ways including social engineering, credential theft, etc. This is why it is so important to protect private keys from attackers. If they get into the wrong hand disaster can occur like this attack. I hope you enjoyed this overview.
