Axie Infinity co-founder loses $9.7M in 3,248-ETH wallet hack
|Two crypto wallet addresses belonging to Jeff “Jihoz” Zirlin, one of the five co-founders of Axie Infinity and Ronin Network, were hacked, and roughly $9.7 million worth of Ether (ETH $2,937) was stolen and siphoned across Tornado Cash.
On Feb. 23, blockchain investigator PeckShield alerted about a “whale wallet” compromise over the Ronin Bridge, reporting that the hacker made away with 3,248 ETH. Aleksander Larsen, co-founder of Ronin Network, immediately responded that “the (Ronin) bridge itself has top security” and suspected a wallet hack instead.
Hacked or not hacked? @Ronin_Network
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) February 23, 2024
0x73f428e1037a310d472A24100dA37fB1d8dEC8B8
0x39F817976C51A91b60145feBad81067e69713105
0xA4017DE6460bD63a77404dd2C2344D6135eD13b2 https://t.co/WQxaY9n5OR pic.twitter.com/5KURCJAW77
Hacked or not hacked? @Ronin_Network
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) February 23, 2024
0x73f428e1037a310d472A24100dA37fB1d8dEC8B8
0x39F817976C51A91b60145feBad81067e69713105
0xA4017DE6460bD63a77404dd2C2344D6135eD13b2 https://t.co/WQxaY9n5OR pic.twitter.com/5KURCJAW77
Larsen also highlighted that the Ronin Bridge had been audited and is designed to pause if an unusually large withdrawal is detected. Soon after, Zirlin confirmed that two of his personal wallets had been hacked. He said the attack was not due to vulnerabilities within the Ronin chain or Sky Mavis operations, adding:
I want to assure everyone that we have strict security measures in place for all chain-related activities.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, PeckShield said that the root cause of the hack was a “wallet compromise,” which allowed the unauthorized outbound transfer of funds.
This has been a tough morning for me.
— Jihoz.ron (@Jihoz_Axie) February 23, 2024
Two of my addresses have been compromised.
The attack is limited to my personal accounts, and has nothing to do with validation or operations of the Ronin chain.
Additionally, the leaked keys have nothing to do with Sky Mavis operations.…
This has been a tough morning for me.
— Jihoz.ron (@Jihoz_Axie) February 23, 2024
Two of my addresses have been compromised.
The attack is limited to my personal accounts, and has nothing to do with validation or operations of the Ronin chain.
Additionally, the leaked keys have nothing to do with Sky Mavis operations.…
While no particular details were shared about the events that led to the hack, Zirlin’s message suggests that the private keys of the two wallets were leaked, which led to unauthorized access to his personal crypto wallets.
Funds stolen from Axie Infinity’s Jihoz were transferred to Tornado Cash. Source: PeckShield
PeckShield’s investigation of the compromised wallets from Ronin Bridge v2 suggests that the 3,248-ETH loot was initially split and moved to three different wallets. The funds eventually made their way into Tornado Cash, a service often used by hackers to anonymize the funds’ ownership and traceability.
On Feb. 1, Binance froze $4.2 million worth of stolen XRP (XRP $0.54), a part of the $112-million hack on Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen’s personal wallet from Jan. 31.
Unlike Axie Infinity’s Jihoz hacker, Larsen’s hacker didn’t use crypto mixer services or decentralized exchanges to hide their identity. As a result, Binance was able to track down some of the funds and block them from the hacker’s access.
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