Axie Infinity dev opens up Ronin Bridge after $620m hack

Sky Mavis, developer of play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, has announced that its Ronin Bridge sidechain is back online after a US$620 million hack prompted a halt in its operations.

Photo credit: Sky Mavis

The firm decided to shut down the bridge after it suffered a security breach in March, resulting in the theft of 173,600 ether and 25.5 million USD coin. In a statement, Sky Mavis said that all user funds are fully backed by the new bridge.

The Ronin Bridge enables assets transfer between the game’s Ethereum sidechain, Ronin Network, and the Ethereum mainnet.

Sky Mavis explained that of the 173,600 ether drained from the Ronin Bridge, 56,000 belonged to the treasury of the Axie decentralized autonomous organization. The company added that it will work with law enforcement to recover the funds.

It has also gotten help from Binance to refund 46,000 ether in April. This left Sky Mavis with 71,600 ether and 25.5 million USD coin in liabilities, which have already been fully reimbursed with the opening of the Ronin Bridge.

In April, Sky Mavis raised US$150 million from Binance, Animoca Brands, Andreessen Horowitz, Dialectic, and Paradigm to pay back all affected users of the hack.

The game developer also explained that it has made an internal audit and two external audits – done by Verichains and CertiK – to investigate the breach. This led to Sky Mavis making several changes to the Ronin Bridge, such as implementing a circuit breaker system with withdrawal limits to prevent suspicious transactions.

See also: Is Axie Infinity too big to fail?