The community impacted by the Ronin hack on March 29th could be reimbursed in the near future. Indeed, several investment funds, led by Binance, managed to raise 150 million dollars to support Sky Mavis, the parent company of Axie Infinity.
Sky Mavis will be able to start paying back its community
Sky Mavis, the parent company of the non-fungible token (NFTs) based game Axie Infinity, has secured $150 million in funding led by Binance.
Animoca Brands, a16z, Dialectic and Accel also participated in the fundraising.
As a reminder, on March 29, more than $620 million was stolen in Ether and USDC on the Ronin network due to a security breach in the transaction signing system. This is currently the 2nd largest hack in the history of cryptocurrencies.
Alongside the fundraising, we learn that Sky Mavis plans to increase the number of validator nodes to 21 from the originally planned 8 within the next 3 months. The nodes will be selected from the Axie Infinity community and partners.
According to Binance’s press release, this funding combined with the existing Sky Mavis funding will allow for full user reimbursement.
Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, made a point of speaking out to support the Sky Mavis team:
“For the entire ecosystem to continue to thrive and mature, it is imperative that we work together, and especially when it comes to security, which is our strong point. […] We believe Sky Mavis will bring a lot of value and growth to the industry as a whole and we feel it is necessary to support them as they work hard to resolve this recent incident.”
An array of safety measures to come
According to Sky Mavis’ latest release, available on their blog, Ronin’s bridge will only reopen after receiving a security update as well as several thorough audits. The time needed could be several weeks.
In order not to penalize Ronin users more severely, Binance has made available a solution for withdrawals and deposits in Ether.
In addition, the 56,000 Ethers stolen in the hack will no longer be insured by their collateral value at least until the funds are recovered through work with law enforcement.
Sky Mavis says that if all the funds are not reintroduced within 2 years, then a vote will be taken at the Axie Infinity DAO to decide the future of the cash.
While it is always possible that the hacker suddenly decides to return all or at least some of the stolen funds, this seems unlikely, as the individual has already started sending some of the stolen Ether to other addresses as well as to Tornado Cash.
Axie Infinity is currently the largest NFT game in the blockchain ecosystem, with over 2.2 million active players and over 3 million downloads for its Ronin Wallet.
