Gamers Rap Perpetrators Of $600M Axie Heist, Demand Protection

After learning that hackers had made off with an eye-popping $600 million from a software system tied to their beloved Axie Infinity video game, players reacted with shock and disbelief — and for the most part, kept on playing, Kristine Servando, Emily Nicolle, and Jamille Tran reported for Bloomberg News.

Photo Insert: Axie Infinity

Users took to Twitter and Facebook to air everything from complaints about cryptocurrencies frozen in their wallets to conspiracy theories. “I feel sad this happened,” Axie player Joni Watanabe said on Twitter on March 30, the day after the hack was announced.

He added an admonishment to Axie’s operator about using proper security protocols, joining a chorus of crypto gamers clamoring for an explanation of how this could happen — and demanding that it be fixed.

While players can still steer their blob-like Axie creatures around the game’s virtual world of Lunacia in search of Smooth Love Potion (SLP) and Axie (AXS) tokens, one crucial aspect is now missing: The ability to move some crypto earned in the game out of the virtual world and into other digital currencies or fiat and vice versa.

That’s because the hackers targeted software known as a “bridge,” penetrating its security protocols and making off with a huge haul of Ether as well as USDC stablecoins.

That software, called the Ronin Bridge, was designed to allow Axie Infinity users to swap their AXS and SLP into Ether or USDC, an intermediary step to converting them to cash. It’s attached to the Ronin Network the blockchain Axie Infinity runs on.

Activity on the Ronin Bridge has been paused while its operators investigate the incident and try to plug any security holes, though access to AXS and SLP withdrawals via crypto exchange Binance came back online Saturday.

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic