Binance Recovers $5.8M worth of Stolen Funds Linked to Axie Infinity Hack
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao confirmed in a tweet that the stolen funds were spread over 86 accounts.
One month after the hacking incident of blockchain game Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge and Katana decentralized exchange (DEX), $5.8 million out of $625 million have been recovered by crypto wallet and exchange Binance.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao confirmed in a tweet that the stolen funds were spread over 86 accounts.
Previously, according to data from Etherscan, the transaction hashes showed that the hacker moved tens of millions of dollars worth of stolen ether (ETH) through privacy protocol Tornado Cash in the past week. As per the data, the exploiter moved 21,000 ether in several transactions to different wallets. It was ust last April 24th that records of 33,568.152 ether (approximately ₱5 million as of writing) were caught being sent out to a sole account.
On March 29th, developer Sky Mavis discovered the hack which happened on March 23— nearly a week later—and reported that they suffered an exploit of 173,600 Ethereum (ETH) and 25.5 million USD Coin (USDC). Later, the FBI reported that North Korean hacking group Lazarus is behind the attack on the Ronin Network.
Aside from Binance, it was also discovered that the funds were also scattered in crypto wallets and exchanges FTX and Crypto.com. (Read more: Axie Infinity Ronin Network Hack)
Accordingly, Lorne Lantz of tracking tool Breadcrumbs wrote an article for BitPinas revealing how the stolen funds move and what the hacker did to exploit the Ronin Network. (Read more: Tracking the Stolen Funds from Ronin Network Using Breadcrumbs)
In the Philippines, where numerous Axie Infinity players are situated, the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) were alarmed and issued an advisory warning Filipino investors to be cautious when dealing with GameFi (gaming-finance) projects involving digital tokens.
To prevent this incident from happening again, Sky Mavis offered a bug bounty for hackers who can identify “extraordinarily severe” vulnerabilities in its ecosystem. (Read more: Axie Infinity Developer Offers $1M Bug Bounty After $622M Ronin Hack)
The developers also added five new validators to further strengthen their network’s security system. (Read more: Who are the 5 New Axie Infinity Ronin Validators?)
Moreover, Axie Infinity also raised $150 million (₱7.6 billion as of writing) to fund the reimbursement for Axie Infinity players and users affected by the Ronin Hack. (Read more: Axie Infinity Ronin Hack: Sky Mavis Raises $150M from Binance, Animoca to Reimburse Hack Victims)
This article is published on BitPinas: Binance Recovers $5.8M worth of Stolen Funds Linked to Axie Infinity Hack
Disclaimer: BitPinas articles and its external content are not financial advice. The team serves to deliver independent, unbiased news to provide information for Philippine-crypto and beyond.
