$600 Million Stolen in NFT Game Hack

Attackers have stolen $625 million in ethereum in a break-in on NFT game Axie Infinity. This is one of the biggest thefts in the industry.

Axie Infinity is one of the more successful crypto games. In the game, you have to collect and train small critters Pokemon-wise. As with many games, you need an in-game coin for this, but with Axie Infinity, it is also on the blockchain, and players can convert that money into ethereum or other crypto coins to be paid out.

It went wrong at that ‘bridge’ between the blockchain and the game, where the coins are converted. Ronin Network, the blockchain behind the game, has revealed that in two transactions, a hacker was able to steal 173,600 Ethereum and 25.5 million USDC. Converted that is more than 625 million dollars or 560 million euros. The attackers had previously copied ‘validator nodes’ from Sky Mavis, the game company behind Axie Infinity.

Meanwhile, Sky Mavis says that it has frozen all transactions so that no more money can be withdrawn from the blockchain. The company also says it has notified government agencies to investigate the hack.