As the uncertainty in the crypto market continues to grow, we witness another hack reported by PeckShield. Ronin, the blockchain network linked to the popular play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, has suspended its bridge following a $9.8 million suspicious outflow to a MEV bot. Ronin Network’s loss adds to the rising number of crypto hacks in 2024.
Ronin Bridge hacked
According to an Aug. 6 X post by PeckShield, Ronin Network has lost 3,996 Ether tokens worth over $9.8 million. The transaction happened at around 9:37 a.m. UTC on Tuesday. PeckShield suggests that the hack could come from a white hat hacker, or ethical hacker, who is running exploits to uncover flaws in the crypto-gaming platform.
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Axie Infinity and Ronin Network co-founder Aleksander Larsen, aka “Psycheout,” posted on X that, “The Ronin Network bridge has been paused while we investigate a report from whitehats about a potential MEV exploit. We will follow up with more information shortly. The bridge currently secures over $850 million, which is safe.
White hat hackers refund stolen funds after discovering a vulnerability and confirming that the code is flawed. If the Ronin hacker proves to be such an ethical hacker, users could get their funds back. If not, then this will be another loss for crypto investors.
This is not the first time Ronin Bridge has been hacked. In March 2022, Ronin was hacked for $600 million. The exploit of five validator keys lost 173,600 ETH worth roughly $590 million at the time. The hackers also took $25.5 million worth of the USDC stablecoin. Lastly, in February 2024, wallets belonging to Jeffrey Zirlin, co-founder of Sky Mavis, which created the Axie Infinity game, were hacked for $9.7M worth of ETH.
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