Crypto worth more than $ 600 million stolen from Axie Infinity's Ronin network

More than $ 600 million were stolen from the digital main register that drives the popular cryptocurrency game axie infinity in one of the largest hacks that aims at the booming sector of the digital assets.

ronin Network, a program with which users can transmit assets in and out axie said on Tuesday that a security violation had discovered that led to $ 173,600 and 25.5 million on March 23 was removed from the system by unidentified hackers.

ronin said that it "works with law enforcement officers, forensic cryptographers and our investors to ensure that all funds are reclaimed or reimbursed". The cryptocurrencies would be worth around $ 615 million at current prices.

"We acted quickly to remedy the incident as soon as it became known and we actively take steps to protect ourselves from future attacks," said Ronin and added that the Ronin bridge that enables transfers to and from the network were "stopped".

ronins hack blends into a growing list of serious security violations that affect popular cryptocurrency applications because millions of new users enter the rapidly growing market. Last August, a hacker stole more than $ 600 million of cryptocurrencies from the Poly Network program, but later returned the money.

According to the security company for cryptocurrencies Certik, users lost $ 1,3 billion in funds last year due to 44 attacks in the broader, decentralized financial system, which corresponds to an increase of about 160 percent compared to the previous year.

axie has quickly become the most visible example of so-called play-to-ear games that enable users in countries such as the Philippines to earn cryptocurrency by fighting digital monsters.

The number of daily users in axie reached 2 million last October, said the game developer, Sky Mavis, at the time. Andreessen Horowitz and other Sky Mavis investors rated it with $ 3 billion.

The Ronin network has played a key role in growth in Axie, by acting as a bridge from the wider cryptocurrency markets to the complex economy of the game. Sky Mavis has designed the digital general book so that it is cheaper and faster when processing transactions than the popular Ethereum blockchain.

ronin said it discovered the hack on Tuesday after a user had unsuccessfully tried to withdraw 5,000 $ around $ 17 million six days after the attack.

In a blog post, Ronin said that the hacker had attacked so-called "validator nodes", computers that help with the processing of transactions in the network. The attacker used "chopped private keys" to make the withdrawals, said Ronin.

ronin said it would increase the "validator threshold", which is required to approved transactions, from five to eight of a total of nine validators to "prevent further short damage".

The digital token associated with Ronin fell by more than 20 percent.