Norway Authorities Recover $5.9M Worth Ronin Bridge Hack Funds

• Around $622 million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from the Ronin Bridge.
• The heist, which occurred on March 23, 2022, involves a complex attack on the bridge.

According to a statement issued today, Norwegian police have recovered stolen cryptocurrencies worth 60 million krone (almost $5.9 million). As part of an investigation into an assault on Sky Mavis and its game Axie Infinity last year. According to the official announcement, this is one of the greatest seizures in Norwegian history and the largest ever using cryptocurrency.

Translation of original announcement quotes First State Attorney Marianne Bender as saying:

“We are working with FBI specialists on cryptocurrency tracking. This kind of cooperation between countries makes us stronger as a society in the fight against digital, profit-motivated crime.”

Complex Attack on the Bridge

Around $622 million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from the Ronin Bridge at Axie Infinity. By hackers believed to have ties to North Korea about a year ago. With the help of blockchain analytics company Chainalysis, prosecutors have managed to retrieve at least 10% of that money.

The heist, which occurred on March 23, 2022, involves a complex attack on the bridge between the Axie Infinity Ronin sidechain and the Ethereum mainnet. The hacker required the private keys for at least five of the nine validator nodes to access the funds stored in the bridge’s wallet.

U.S. authorities quickly connected the Ethereum wallets used in the breach to the North Korean hacker organization Lazarus. Yet, the attacker didn’t spend much time with the money in those wallets. On April 4, the hacker had spent all but $376.73 as he attempted to hide the true origin of the funds by passing them via services like the sanctioned Tornado Cash privacy protocol.

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