Axie Infinity co-founder Jeff “Jihoz” Zirlin was targeted by hackers who managed to steal 3248 ETH worth $9.7 million from a compromised wallet.
The stolen funds were siphoned off by hackers using Tornado Cash.
Axie Infinity Co-Founder Target
Details of the hack were revealed by blockchain security company PeckShield, which posted information about the whale wallet compromise on Ronin Bridge, revealing that the hackers stole 3248 ETH.
“The whale wallet appears to have been compromised and ~3,248 $ETH (~$9.7M worth) was withdrawn from #Ronin Bridge and transferred to #TornadoCash.”
Alexander Larsen, co-founder of Ronin Network, responded to this post saying that Ronin Bridge has the best security and that he suspects the wallet was hacked.
“There are no problems with the bridge and Ronin has made no compromises. The title is very misleading. As happens on all chains, wallets have clearly been compromised and funds are being cashed out in a tornado. The bridge itself has the best security, has been heavily audited and will be suspended if too much is withdrawn.”
Larsen emphasized that Ronin Bridge has been audited multiple times and is designed to suspend if unusually large withdrawals are detected.
Zirlin confirmed the loss
Shortly after the exchange, the Axie Infinity co-founder confirmed the hack, saying two of his personal wallets were compromised. He stated that the hack was not caused by vulnerabilities within Sky Mavis or Ronin Chain.
“Today was a difficult morning for me. Two of my addresses are corrupted. The attack is limited to my personal account and has nothing to do with the verification or operation of the Ronin chain. Additionally, the leaked keys have nothing to do with Sky Mavis operations. We want to reassure everyone that we have strict security measures in place for all chain-related activities. Thank you to everyone who contacted us. “I am safe.”
PeckShield said the root cause of the hack was a wallet compromise that allowed unauthorized fund transfers from the wallet. It is still unclear how the hackers were able to gain control of the two wallets in question.
stolen money laundering
PeckShield’s investigation of the compromised wallet revealed that the stolen funds were split and moved to three different wallets. The funds eventually made their way to Tornado Cash, a favorite service among hackers to anonymize the ownership and traceability of funds.
Others, like Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, also fell victim to similar hacks when their wallets were compromised. However, Binance was able to trace and freeze some of the stolen funds. This is because Larson’s hackers did not use cryptocurrency mixer services or decentralized exchanges to hide their identities.
“After initial learning of the attack on @Ripple, we are happy to say that the #Binance team has frozen $4.2M worth of XRP stolen by the attackers. As always, we appreciate the community’s efforts to report this to the exchange via @zachxbt.
You did a great job. And the Ripple team worked collaboratively with us. We will continue to support Ripple’s investigation and efforts to recover the funds, including closely monitoring the majority of funds remaining in the exploiters’ external wallets in case they are deposited into Binance.”
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not provided or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.