Norway Recovers $5.7 Million in Cryptocurrencies Stolen from Axie Infinity

Norwegian authorities have managed to freeze and return $5.7 million in cryptocurrency stolen from the Ronin Bridge attack.

Norway successfully froze and returned nearly $6 million in cryptocurrency stolen from the $620 million hack of the online game Axie Infinity in 2022.

In an X message Friday, Sky Mavis, the blockchain company behind it Axie Infiniterevealed that the National Economic and Environmental Crime Investigation and Prosecution Authority froze the assets in close cooperation with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis.

According to the Singapore-based company, approximately 15% of the recovered assets will be used to cover costs incurred during the recovery process, while the remaining 85% “will be deposited into Axie Infinity’s treasury.”

“We would like to publicly extend our sincere gratitude to all those who contributed to the recovery efforts, especially Økokrim and the FBI in the United States, for their tireless effort in tracking and recovering these assets for the Axie and Ronin communities.”

Sky Mavis

The blockchain company also added that another $40 million in separate crypto funds have been frozen, though it declined to elaborate on the matter, saying that “these assets will take time to recover and we do not have sufficient information to provide guidance on how specific timetable for the recovery and return of this separate set of assets.”

The Crossed Chain Bridge from Axie Infinity right away a $620 million attack in 2022, when hackers, presumably North Korean, exploited a vulnerability in the bridge connecting the Ronin sidechain to the Ethereum blockchain. Subsequent reports revealed that the hack was likely facilitated by hackers who tricked a company engineer into applying for a fake job, which contained spyware with malicious code to infiltrate Ronin’s systems.

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