Recovering the assets, according to Sky Mavis, needed a concerted effort.
The Ronin hack has been linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
A total of $5.7 million was frozen and recovered by the Norwegian authorities in connection with the $600 million Ronin exploit that occurred in 2022. The Ethereum sidechain Ronin was developed by Sky Mavis specifically for the play-to-earn web3 game Axie Infinity.
Sky Mavis stated on X:
“The Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Økokrim) has successfully frozen and returned 5.7 M USD in stolen assets from the Ronin bridge incident.”
Concerted Effort
Furthermore, recovering the assets, according to the Axie Infinity web3 game’s creator, needed a concerted effort by law enforcement, attorneys, accountants, and blockchain forensics companies like Chainalysis. It was established that expenditures would be covered with 15% of the proceeds, and the remaining funds will be transferred into the Axie Infinity treasury.
Sky Mavis added:
“We’d like to publicly extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who assisted in the recovery efforts, especially Økokrim and the FBI in the US, for their tireless effort to track down and recover these assets for the Axie and Ronin communities.”
Law enforcement has frozen around $40 million in assets, the game creator said again, but that it will take time for those assets to recover and that it does not yet have a particular date for when those assets would be available.
Moreover, the loss of over $600 million in crypto assets occurred as a consequence of the Ronin vulnerability in March 2022, making it the greatest DeFi exploit ever. Along with earlier hacks like the $100 million Harmony bridge exploit in January 2023, this assault has been linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
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