Ronin Developers Recovers $5.7M From High-Profile 2022 Hack

Sky Mavis, the game development company developing the Ronin network, announced Friday the recovery of $5.7 million worth of crypto assets through the Norwegian government. Hackers had previously stolen these funds from the Ronin Bridge in March 2022.

Today we received some exciting news from the Norwegian government and Økokrim.

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…

— Sky Mavis (@SkyMavisHQ) June 7, 2024

Ronin Recovers $5.7M

Sky Mavis explained that the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Økokrim) confiscated and returned the funds to the game-centric project’s team. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also aided in retrieving the stolen funds.

In late March 2022, Ronin developers announced it experienced a high-profile hack, worth approximately $625 million. The team revealed that they discovered the exploit six days later. They added that the hacker(s) breached the Ronin bridge to conduct the attack. A month later, the U.S. Treasury Department claimed that Lazarus Group, a notorious North Korean hacking group, was behind the exploit.

Interestingly, crypto-focused platforms like Binance and Chainalysis collaborated with local authorities across countries like the U.S. and Norway to retrieve portions of the stolen funds. The Norwegian government recovered nearly $6 million for the Ronin team earlier last year.

Sky Mavis stated that about 15% of the retrieved funds will be used to “cover costs and expenses incurred by those involved in the recovery efforts.” The remaining 85% will be channelled into the Axie Infinity treasury.

Law Authorities Freezes About $40M

While celebrating its win, Sky Mavis informed the public that approximately $40 million remains in the custody of the law authorities. It added that there is no specific timeframe it can retrieve these funds.

“We’d also like to take this moment to remind the community that ~ 40 M USD in separate assets have been frozen by the law enforcement authorities. These assets will take some time to recover and we don’t have enough information to give guidance around a specific timetable for recovering and returning this separate pool of assets,” the team wrote.