Axie Infinity Developer Denies Wrongdoing After Ronin Hack-Related Crypto Transfer Discovery

In the aftermath of March hacked by Ronin blockchain, Vietnamese game developer Cloud Mavisthe entity behind the blockchain-based game Axie Infinity (AXS), denies allegations of wrongdoing as around US$3 million of the original AXS token was allegedly moved from Ronin to a Binance account in the hours before the attack was discovered.

Sky Mavis claims CEO Trung Nguyen diverted the funds to his wallet for the purpose of protecting the company and helping users after the hack, Bloomberg reports.

The attackers hit Axie’s Ronin bridge, which allows users to send crypto back and forth between Ethereum (ETH) and Axie’s Ronin sidechain, leading to the exploit of more than US$600 million last March, making it one of the biggest hacks in decentralized finance (DeFi) history.

In response to what he describes as “speculation of insider trading” related to the Ronin attack, which would benefit him financially, Nguyen tweeted that “the allegations are baseless and false,” adding that,

“In fact, the founding team even deposited [USD] 7.5 million from a known Axie multi-sig wallet TO Ronin Network before the bridge closes to avoid triggering short sellers who are watching.”

The CEO claimed that “the founding team chose to transfer it from my wallet to ensure that short sellers, who track official Axie wallets, would not be able to show the news ahead of time.”

Nguyen further claimed that Axie Infinity and its community are his life’s work, adding:

“I take ownership of the security breach and will use it as a learning experience.”

Nguyen also said that “the bridge has been reopened with all player funds supported 1:1”, prompting a number of reactions, mostly supportive, from other Twitter users.

“The Axie Infinity community will continue to support you Trung, avoid the non-believers,” so one Twitter user.

In contrast, another user asked the company’s managing director”[w]how did it take so long to BUILD the bridge back up” and “what did you do every week the bridge was down.”

Earlier this month, Sky Mavis revealed a number of updates to the popular game’s infrastructure, including various upgrades, saying that there has been “incredible progress in refining and customizing the quintessential Ronin user experience.” This consisted of improving the resource on/off ramp interface, by simplifying or making it more user-friendly, they said, adding:

“As we work quickly to decentralize the Ronin network, there are a number of additional backend features we need to build for validators, including voting processes and various summary dashboards.”

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Learn more:
– Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge should be reopened after hack, locked funds should be returned
– Axie Infinity’s Post-Hack Metrics beckon optimism, not despair

– Axie Infinity’s Ronin Hack Reveals Proof-of-Stake and Centralization Risks – Analysts
– Axie Infinity shows new signs of life, despite still falling NFT sales

– NFT hack via Discord may be connected – Analysts
– Main types of the most popular hacking attacks under IDO