Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, spoke about the small percentage recovered from the Axie Infinity attack.
The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, expressed that his team managed to recover the amount of $5.8 million from North Korean attackers who extracted $600 million from the well-known game Axie Infinity last month.
After the attack, US regulators detected the hackers and identified them as Lazarus Group, a group based in North Korea linked to its ruling regime.
CZ expressed in a Twitter post that the exchange managed to recover $5.8 million from attackers who had migrated a piece of the stolen funds to Binance and distributed them across 86 user accounts.
The DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) hacking group started migrating their stolen funds from Axie Infinity today. Some of these movements happened through Binance, spread across more than 86 accounts. $5.8 million got already recovered.
Also recently, security firm PeckShield highlighted the way hackers managed to launder at least 7.5% of extracted funds through Tornado Cash, an Ethereum mixer tool that blurs transactions. The Block expressed that the hackers’ efforts focused on turning the extracted currencies into fiat money through centralized entities like Binance.
Axie is no Longer a Favorite Game in the Market
The Axie team previously expressed that it works hard and closely with digital currency exchanges to follow any trace of the extracted funds left behind during the attack.
On the other hand, Binance led a $150 million funding fund with Sky Mavis, intending to return the hack victims their stolen assets. Also, from the beginning of Axie, Binance was very supportive: in Latin America, for example, it offered tons of scholarships to players.
It is worth noting that the events that have occurred have lessened the popularity of Axie Infinity, which is no longer among the favorite Play-to-Earn games of users but ranks 11th.
Capitalists Pumped Millions into Blockchain Games
The sector’s growth got fueled by the popularity of Play-to-Earn (P2E) games that leverage non-fungible tokens (NFTs). According to the report, Ethereum sidechain-based games such as Polygon contributed to the growth, accounting for more than half of the 1.22 million UAW.
Specifically, according to the data, platforms like Crazy Defense Heroes, Pegaxy, Arc8, and Aavegotchi spurred a 219% increase in Polygon gaming activity since the beginning of 2022.
Blockchain games have also attracted considerable money from venture capitalists and other investors. According to the report, the entire sector collected $2.5 billion in funds during the first quarter of 2022, 150% more than in the same period of the previous year.
Major deals highlighted in the report that Animoca Brands raised $360 million, bringing its valuation to a total of $5 billion and positioning the company as a leading Web3 brand.
On the other hand, Yuga Labs, creators of the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection, received at least $450 million in a round involving The Sandbox, FTX, and Coinbase.
By: Jenson Nuñez
