The studio behind Axie Infinity, Sky Mavis, has announced the recovery of $5.7 million stolen from the Ronin sidechain.
Today we received some exciting news from the Norwegian government and Økokrim.
The Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Økokrim) has successfully frozen and returned 5.7 M USD in stolen assets from the Ronin bridge…
— Sky Mavis (@SkyMavisHQ) June 7, 2024
The funds were returned with the assistance of the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime.
“~15% of the returned assets will be allocated to cover the costs and expenses incurred by those involved in the recovery [of the funds]. The remaining 85% will be deposited into the Axie Infinity treasury,” the statement reads.
Sky Mavis representatives added that law enforcement has frozen “certain assets worth $40 million.” The return of these assets will take time, and the studio could not specify a timeline.
The attack by North Korean hackers from the Lazarus Group on the Axie Infinity network was one of the largest in the industry. In March 2022, the perpetrators gained access to five of the nine validator keys. They used the majority to approve two withdrawal transactions: 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC. The value of the stolen assets at that time was $625 million.
In September, law enforcement, with the help of blockchain analytics company Chainalysis, seized over $30 million in stolen cryptocurrency.
Earlier in 2024, Norwegian authorities reported the confiscation of $5.9 million stolen in the attack.