In one of the largest crypto thefts in history, hackers stole around $600 million from the online computer game “Axie Infinity”. The perpetrators stole a total of 173,600 ethers and 25.5 million USDC tokens on March 23. However, the robbery only became public on Tuesday.
“The fact that no one saw anything for six days calls for a structure to be put in place to monitor illegal transfers,” said Wilfred Daye, head of security firm Securitize Capital.
The target of the attack were so-called nodes within the game, which are operated by the Axie Infinity manufacturer Sky Mavis and the platform Axie DAO. These nodes are used to exchange in-game rewards or tokens for cryptocurrencies or cash.
They are in contact with major cryptocurrency exchanges and with blockchain tracker Chainalysis to monitor the movement of stolen coins, said Ronin, the company that manages in-game payments. “Most” of the loot is still on the hacker’s account.