The attack took effect a week ago but came public eye on Tuesday. After the news, the Ronin token crumbled down at least 20%, and AXS also got harmed.

The Axie Infinity network, one of the most famous games in the crypto environment, has just fell victim to a hacking attack that could get described as one of the biggest hacks in history.

Ronin Network, the gaming-focused Ethereum sidechain, suffered an attack on Tuesday that mined cryptocurrencies worth a combined amount that might surpass $625 million. The team behind the network went to their social media networks to highlight the crime. The affected entities reported losses of at least 173,600 Ethereum (ETH) and 25.5 million in USDC.

According to a report made by the developers, the attack harmed Ronin Network validation nodes for Sky Mavis, the entities in charge of the popular game Axie Infinity, and Axie’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

The malicious actor reportedly employed the hacked private keys to fake withdrawals and managed to extract funds from the Ronin bridge in just two operations. The exploit happened on March 23, but it became public this Tuesday after a user experienced difficulties trying to carry out a withdrawal valued at 5,000 ETH from the Ronin bridge without success.

The Ronin sidechain has nine validators that need five signatures for withdrawals, a design intended to protect the system from such attacks. However, the factual report indicates that the hacker would have found “a backdoor” through the RPC node without gas, “which they abused to obtain the signature for the Axie DAO validator.”

RON token Crumble Down after the News

According to CoinDesk, which gathered data from Etherscan, the Ronin attacker’s address is new, and he managed to transfer Ether from the Binance exchange just a week ago. Most of the funds seem to be intact in that address, although just over 6,000 ETH (about $20 million) got migrated to other addresses.

The incident caused severe damage to the price of RON, Ronin’s primary government token, which has crumbled down at least 20% or more, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The coin went from $2.2 to $1.6 in minutes after the news of the crime. Also, Axie Infinity’s token, AXS, faced a sudden decline amid the reports.

Meanwhile, based on that network, the Ronin bridge and the Katana Automated Market Maker (AMM) got suspended while investigations on the subject evolved.

The Ronin team clarified that they joined efforts with law enforcement officials, cryptographers, and investors to make sure that all the extracted assets get saved and go back to their owners.

Hacks on cross-chain protocols and sidechains have become everyday events in the crypto environment, although the amount extracted from Ronin is high compared to other cases. In August 2021, a hacker mined $600 million into the Poly Network cross-chain decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol; but most funds returned soon after.

By: Jenson Nuñez

While it is unclear whether this was a mistake or a thoroughly planned act, the fact is that the item got traded through OpenSea for less than 1% of its estimated value.

The NFT field is a curious place filled with a handful of stories, some with happy endings, while others would lead users to be more careful when marketing digital collectibles.

A curious situation happened to the owner of Bored Ape #835, an item whose value goes at more than 106 ETH or USD 358,000, which its owner ended up selling by mistake for at least USD 115 in DAI tokens. This operation took effect due to an error when setting the price of the NFT in question.

This information got revealed by the Decrypt medium, in which what happened got described in detail. They reported that the news became viral after a search made to the OpenSea platform, where the NFT of the popular Bored collection got negotiated.

According to reports, the error appeared when the owner, a user nicknamed “cchan. eth,” was going to set the price and the asset in question in which the collectible would get sold.

A Big Mistake

Although this last theory takes on exceptional strength for some, since the cheapest example in the associated collection, Mutant Ape, got priced at USD 22.8 ETH (approximately USD 76,000), other users wished to go beyond the limits of the investigation. They pointed out that this pricing by mistake may also be an action done on the real purpose.

Reviewing the owner’s trading history, it is clear that he also owned Mutant Ape Collection #11670, which he also traded today for just 25 DAI ($25).

These facts also lead some to think that the user may have seen their account hacked, given that OpenSea has already been the victim of security breaches, whereby some users have lost invaluable NFTs from quite reputable collections.

This mistake appears to be a well-planned move that allows the player to legitimize his capital somehow. Network enthusiasts also speculated some theories about the possibility that he sold the NFT to himself since nothing prevents him from being the wallet owner to which the collectible went. This measure would allow him to cover up other types of activities.

The Rise of Expensive NFTs

Although the case may have various readings, the only certainty at the moment is that a couple of very expensive NFTs got sold for prices below their market values, and this action does not mean that they are highly coveted items among the knowledgeable community.

As for the Bored Ape, several recognized figures have at least one copy. An example of this is the singer Madonna, who recently purchased an item from this collection valued at more than USD 500,000.

Seen as highly demanded items or by others as one of many meaningless fads, the truth is that NFTs became an unstoppable boom in the market, and analysts theorize that their rise will increase over time in light of the arrival of metaverses.

By: Jenson Nuñez