Axie Infinity Ready For The Long Haul To Recover Stolen Funds

According to Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis, the recovery of all the funds stolen in the Ronin Validator Hack might take upto two years. 

A Long Road To Recovery

In March, it was announced that Axie Infinity’s Ronin Sidechain had been exploited, which resulted in the loss of an estimated $625 million worth of USDC and ETH.

Sky Mavis, the developer company behind the Axie Infinity game, had to take $450 million from its balance sheet to issue reimbursements to those affected by the Ronin Validator Hack. The company also received assistance from the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, which led a $150 million funding round and other investors contributed to Sky Mavis’ reimbursement fund. Therefore, it tracks that the company is keen to put in the time and effort to get the stolen funds back. 

The COO of Sky Mavis, Aleksander Leonard Larsen, discussed the company’s approach to recover the funds and acknowledged that the process could be a lengthy one. However, he is hopeful that it will give them enough time to get more information about the hack. 

Larsen said,  

“What we are assuming over the next two years is that some funds will be recovered. Two years for Axie is a good time for us to get more information. We’re here to play the long game.” 

Hackers Might Struggle With Volume Of Stolen Funds

The company is working hand-in-hand with law enforcement to track down the stolen funds. However, details of the investigation have not been revealed to the public yet. Certain members of the community are not entirely too hopeful about the recovery of the entire loot. For example, Rishav Rai, the lead investigator at Merkle Science, claims that it is quite rare for proceeds of large crypto hacks to be fully recovered. 

He also added that the hackers would face a challenge when trying to liquidate the stolen funds. For example, Tornado Cash is a crypto mixer often preferred by hackers trying to siphon away stolen crypto by muddling up all traces of the amount. However, in this case, the volume of funds is too high for the mixer to handle or conceal. This has been a serious challenge for other hackers trying to siphon large volumes of crypto. In fact, in some instances, the hackers were even forced to return the funds to avoid detection on the blockchain. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.