Hackers steal nearly $10 million from Axie Infinity co-founder’s personal accounts
One of the co-founders of the video game Axie Infinity and the related Ronin Network had nearly $10 million in cryptocurrency stolen from personal accounts.
Reports said wallets belonging to Jeff “Jihoz” Zirlin were hacked to the tune of 3,248 ethereum coins, or about $9.7 million. Zirlin confirmed on social media late Thursday that two of his accounts were compromised.
“The attack is limited to my personal accounts, and has nothing to do with validation or operations of the Ronin chain” or Axie Infinity operator Sky Mavis, Zirlin said. Another Ronin Network co-founder, Aleksander Larsen, echoed those comments.
It’s unclear how the intruders got access to Zirlin’s wallets.
The Ronin Network underpins Axie Infinity, which has a play-to-earn economy based on ethereum. It’s particularly popular in Southeast Asia. Hackers stole $600 million in cryptocurrency from the system in March 2022 — an attack that U.S. prosecutors subsequently attributed to Lazarus Group, a North Korean state-backed cybercrime operation.
On Friday, analysts traced the funds stolen from Zirlin’s accounts to activity on Tornado Cash, a mixer designed to hide the source of cryptocurrency. Lazarus used the mixer to launder funds from the 2022 hack, according to the U.S. government, which separately sanctioned Tornado Cash.
Blockchain investigator PeckShield told the publication Cointelegraph that the theft was indeed a “wallet compromise.”
“I want to assure everyone that we have strict security measures in place for all chain related activities” for Ronin, Zirlin said.
This has been a tough morning for me.
— Jihoz.ron (@Jihoz_Axie) February 23, 2024
Two of my addresses have been compromised.
The attack is limited to my personal accounts, and has nothing to do with validation or operations of the Ronin chain.
Additionally, the leaked keys have nothing to do with Sky Mavis operations.…
Joe Warminsky
is the news editor for Recorded Future News. He has more than 25 years experience as an editor and writer in the Washington, D.C., area. He previously he helped lead CyberScoop for more than five years. Prior to that, he was a digital editor at WAMU 88.5, the NPR affiliate in Washington, and he spent more than a decade editing coverage of Congress for CQ Roll Call.