Norway recovers $5.7m in crypto stolen from Axie Infinity

  crypto.news 07 June 2024 15:23, UTC

Norwegian authorities have successfully frozen and returned $5.7 million in stolen crypto from the Ronin bridge attack.

Norway has successfully frozen and returned nearly $6 million in stolen crypto from the $620 million hack of the online game Axie Infinity in 2022.

In an X post on Friday, Sky Mavis, the blockchain firm behind Axie Infinity, revealed that the National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime froze the assets in close collaboration with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, and blockchain forensic firm Chainalysis.

Today we received some exciting news from the Norwegian government and Økokrim.

The Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Økokrim) has successfully frozen and returned 5.7 M USD in stolen assets from the Ronin bridge…

— Sky Mavis (@SkyMavisHQ) June 7, 2024

According to the Singapore-based firm, approximately 15% of the recovered assets will be allocated to cover costs incurred during the recovery process, while the remaining 85% “will be deposited into the Axie Infinity treasury.”

You might also like: New research shows North Korean cybercriminal group responsible for Ronin bridge hack

“We’d like to publicly extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who assisted in the recovery efforts, especially Økokrim and the FBI in the US, for their tireless effort to track down and recover these assets for the Axie and Ronin communities.”

Sky Mavis

The blockchain firm also added that an additional $40 million in separate crypto funds have been frozen, although it declined to elaborate on the matter, saying “these assets will take some time to recover and we don’t have enough information to give guidance around a specific timetable for recovering and returning this separate pool of assets.”

Axie Infinity’s cross-chain bridge suffered a $620 million attack in 2022, when hackers — alleged to be North Korean — exploited a vulnerability in the bridge connecting the Ronin sidechain to the Ethereum blockchain. Subsequent reports revealed the hack was likely facilitated by hackers tricking an engineer at the firm into applying for a fake job, which contained malicious code spyware to infiltrate Ronin’s systems.

Read more: Ronin hackers moved some stolen funds from Ethereum to Bitcoin network

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