Sky Mavis Bounces Back From Ronin Attack With $150M Raise

Sky Mavis, the company behind the hit play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, has raised an additional $150 million in its latest funding round. 

Sky Mavis to Reimburse Stolen Funds

Two weeks after losing over half a billion dollars in a bridge attack, Sky Mavis is raising more money.

The Axie Infinity developer announced it had secured $150 million Wednesday after closing a funding round led by Binance. Crypto investment giants Animoca Brands, Andreessen Horowitz, Dialectic, and Paradigm also participated in the raise, doubling down on their previous contributions. 

In a blog post, Sky Mavis explained that the money secured in the raise, combined with its own balance sheet funds, would be used to ensure that all users affected by the Mar. 23 Ronin bridge attack are reimbursed. The bridge connecting the Ronin sidechain to Ethereum mainnet was compromised after an attacker obtained the private keys to five of the chain’s nine validator nodes. The attacker made off with 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC, worth over $550 million at the time.

“The last eight days have been the hardest stretch of our four-year journey. Thank you for your bravery, kindness, prayers, and words of support,” the note stated, explaining that the Ronin bridge will reopen once it has undergone a security upgrade and several audits. 

Sky Mavis CEO Trung Nguyen also explained how the company plans to boost the security of the Ronin network by expanding its validator set and implementing new security measures. He said: 

“Sky Mavis is committed to reimbursing all of our users’ lost funds and implementing rigorous internal security measures to prevent future attacks. With the support of Binance and other industry leaders, we will be able to quickly expand the validator set from five to 21 validators to ensure the security of the Ronin network.”

The post also revealed that Sky Mavis is working with Binance to provide Ethereum deposits and withdrawals for Axie Infinity players while the Ronin bridge is down. “In order for the global ecosystem to continue thriving and maturing, it is imperative that we work together, especially when it comes to security, which is our strong suit,” said Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. “We strongly believe Sky Mavis will bring a lot of value and growth for the larger industry, and we believe it’s necessary to support them as they work hard to resolve the recent incident,” he said. 

Despite the recent setbacks, Sky Mavis is forging ahead with the development of Axie Infinity. Tomorrow, the company will debut Axie Infinity: Origin, an updated version of the game set to include new mechanics and allow new users to try out the game for free.

Disclosure: At the time of writing this piece, the author owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.