{"id":65052,"date":"2022-07-29T10:47:24","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T07:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=65052"},"modified":"2025-09-06T17:51:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T14:51:56","slug":"sky-mavis-chief-denies-insider-trading-allegations-amid-ronin-sidechain-hack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/sky-mavis-chief-denies-insider-trading-allegations-amid-ronin-sidechain-hack\/","title":{"rendered":"Sky Mavis chief denies insider trading allegations amid Ronin sidechain hack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The head of Sky Mavis, Trung Nguyen, said that any speculation about the Axie Infinity team&#8217;s involvement in an insider-trading scheme in the period immediately after the Ronin sidechain hack was &#8220;baseless and false&#8221;.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"twitter-tweet\\\">\n<p lang=\\\"en\\\" dir=\\\"ltr\\\">This story includes speculation of insider trading. These accusations are baseless and false. In fact, the Founding Team even deposited $7.5M from a known Axie multi-sig wallet TO Ronin Network prior to the bridge closing to avoid triggering any short-sellers watching.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Trung Nguyen (@trungfinity) <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/trungfinity\/status\/1552723321611079681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">July 28, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\\\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\\\" charset=\\\"utf-8\\\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Earlier, a blogger under the nickname Asobs published a video accusing Nguyen and other founders of insider trading of AXS tokens.<\/p>\n<figure class=\\\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\\\">\n<div class=\\\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\\\">\\n<iframe loading=\\\"lazy\\\" title=\\\"Questionable Transactions | Sky Mavis Full Breakdown\\\" width=\\\"500\\\" height=\\\"281\\\" src=\\\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uLIlrbdtmjw?feature=oembed\\\" frameborder=\\\"0\\\" allow=\\\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\\\" referrerpolicy=\\\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\\\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\\n<\/p>\n<p>According to Asobs, 22 hours before the public disclosure of the Ronin hack, the wallet belonging to Nguyen transferred 48,838 AXS (more than $3.2 million at the rate at the time) to the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that other addresses identified by him as belonging to Sky Mavis employees also conducted large transactions during this period.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"twitter-tweet\\\" data-conversation=\\\"none\\\">\n<p lang=\\\"en\\\" dir=\\\"ltr\\\">13\/19<br \/>Here we have a 5 day period where AXS ran up, but before the hack was discovered. Then roughly 22 hours between SM learning about the hack and shutting down the network. <a href=\\\"https:\/\/t.co\/MBEnitasCs\\\">pic.twitter.com\/MBEnitasCs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Asobs (@Asobs_CNG) <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Asobs_CNG\/status\/1552776901671784449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">July 28, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\\\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\\\" charset=\\\"utf-8\\\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\\\">\n<p>\u00abHere we see a five-day period during which AXS rose, and the hack had not yet been discovered. Then\u2014approximately a 22-hour window between Sky Mavis learning about the hack and shutting down the network. [\u2026] When we look at the amounts moved, there is a significant difference between the value moved in these two periods\u00bb, wrote Asobs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The blogger explained that he found seven wallets linked to Sky Mavis employees. In the specified five-day period, they collectively moved assets worth $150,000. However, after the company learned of the hack, the same wallets conducted transactions totaling $1.15 million.<\/p>\n<p>In a conversation with <a href=\\\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-07-28\/axie-ceo-moved-axs-tokens-to-binance-before-disclosing-ronin-hack\\\">Bloomberg<\/a>, a company representative Kali Mur confirmed that the address that transferred 48,838 AXS indeed controls Nguyen. She explained that the CEO wanted to bolster the company&#8217;s liquidity amid the looming crisis and was forced to execute the transaction &#8220;not obvious to the market&#8221; way.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\\\">\n<p>\u00abWe understood that our position would depend on the amount of AXS on Binance. Greater liquidity would give us the ability to use various options for securing loans\/capital. The founding team decided to transfer the assets from his wallet so as not to allow traders who monitor Axie&#8217;s official addresses to outpace the market,&#8221; Mur said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In a tweet, Nguyen confirmed that the transfer of $3 million in AXS to Binance was &#8220;part of the liquidity provisioning plan&#8221;. He said that before the Ronin Bridge&#8217;s closure the team also sent to the exchange assets worth $7.5 million &#8220;from a known multi-sig wallet&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>As reported, on March 29, 2022, Sky Mavis announced the Ronin sidechain hack. The developers said that on March 23, the attackers, exploiting a vulnerability, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/ronin-the-ethereum-sidechain-hacked-attacker-siphons-625-million\">withdrew crypto assets totaling $625 million<\/a>. The network was halted.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/axie-infinity-team-reveals-ronin-attack-details-and-promises-to-reimburse-users-losses\">of a phishing attack<\/a> on one of the company&#8217;s employees, the hackers were able to gain access to its infrastructure and the Ethereum-sidechain validators.<\/p>\n<p>Later, the developers noted that the attackers <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/ronin-sidechain-developers-reveal-further-details-of-625-million-hack\">used<\/a> social engineering. The attack was carried out in December 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The Ronin restart <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/ronin-sidechain-relaunches-three-months-after-625-million-hack\">took place<\/a> in June \u2014 three months after the hack.<\/p>\n<p>Follow ForkLog&#8217;s Bitcoin news on our Telegram \u2014 cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The head of Sky Mavis, Trung Nguyen, called any speculation about the Axie Infinity team&#8217;s involvement in an insider trading scheme in the period immediately after the Ronin sidechain hack &#8216;baseless and false&#8217;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1581,1156,1359],"class_list":["post-65052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-axie-infinity","tag-institutional-investors-and-whales","tag-ronin"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"16","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65054,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65052\/revisions\/65054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}