Blockchain project Ronin hit by $615 million crypto heist (updated)

Creative Realities

29/03/2022 17:26

(Updates to add context, detail from statement)
    By Tom Wilson and Elizabeth Howcroft
    LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - Blockchain project Ronin said
on Tuesday that hackers stole cryptocurrency now worth almost
$615 million from its systems, in what would be one of the
largest cryptocurrency heists on record. 
    The project said that unidentified hackers on March 23 stole
some 173,600 ether tokens and 25.5 million USD Coin tokens. At
current exchange rates, the stolen funds are worth $615 million,
but they were worth some $540 million at the time of the attack.
    This makes it the second-largest crypto theft on record,
according to blockchain analysis firm Elliptic.
    Ronin is used to power the popular online game Axie
Infinity, which uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and is the
biggest NFT collection by all-time sales volume, according to
NFT market tracker CryptoSlam.
    Ronin said in a blog post that the hacker had used stolen
private keys - the passwords needed to access crypto funds - to
make off with the funds. 
    Ronin said it had discovered the hack on Tuesday. "We are
working directly with various government agencies to ensure the
criminals get brought to justice," it said, adding that it was
discussing with Axie Infinity how to ensure no users' funds were
lost. 
    Ronin's users are unable to withdraw or deposit funds on the
network, it said.
    Ronin did not immediately respond to a request for comment
sent via Twitter. It said it was working with major blockchain
tracker Chainalysis to trace the stolen funds. Most of the funds
are still in the hacker's digital wallet, Ronin said.
    Hacks have long plagued crypto platforms.
    The cryptocurrency arm of Jump Trading said last month it
had restored more than $320 million to crypto platform Wormhole
after the decentralised finance site was hit with one of the
largest crypto heists on record.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2UE1GG
    Last August, hackers behind likely the biggest ever digital
coin heist returned nearly all of the $610 million-plus they
stole from the DeFi site Poly Network.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2PJ21E
    In 2018, digital tokens worth some $530 million were stolen
from Tokyo-based platform Coincheck. Mt. Gox, another Japanese
exchange, collapsed in 2014 after hackers stole half a billion
dollars of crypto.
    Ronin is developed by Singapore-based game studio Sky Mavis,
which owns Axie Infinity. Sky Mavis does not give contact
details on its website. It did not immediately respond to a
request for comment sent via LinkedIn.

 (Reporting by Tom Wilson, editing by Huw Jones, William
Maclean)
 ((T.Wilson@thomsonreuters.com; (44) 20 7513 5676; Reuters
Messaging: t.wilson.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))