Sky Mavis, the company behind Axie Infinity, announced on June 28 the reopening of its Ronin sidechain, a secondary blockchain designed specifically to support this “Play To Earn” game, or in French “Jouer Pour Gagner”. Its objective is to speed up transactions between players while reducing their fees. She had been the target of a cyberattack last March.
Ronin vulnerabilities fixed
Founded in 2018, Axie Infinity has established itself as the benchmark for crypto-gaming. And if it was still possible to play it, for three months, users no longer had access to its Ronin marketplace. The game is based on a collection of NFTs. Players buy creatures called “Axies” to fight against other players. After the siphoning off of $625 million, players will once again be able to transact.
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As a reminder, the cybercriminals had stolen 173,600 ether (about $597 million) and $25.5 million in USDC, a stablecoin backed by the value of the US dollar. This attack was attributed by the FBI to the North Korean hacker group Lazarus, famous for hacking Sony Pictures in 2014.
The Ronin Bridge is open!
• All user funds are fully backed 1:1 by the new bridge.
• The bridge has undergone an internal audit and two external audits.
• We are still on track to release Land Staking this week.— Axie Infinity?? (@AxieInfinity) June 28, 2022
In his communicatedSky Mavis explains that the new bridge, this system allowing to move cryptocurrencies from one blockchain to another, “ includes as a contingency plan a “short circuit” system which reinforces its security by stopping large withdrawals which seem suspicious “.
Following this hack, the Vietnamese start-up declared that it would reimburse all the funds lost by its users. In this sense, it raised, on April 6, 150 million dollars from private investors. Eventually, the promise will only be half honored. Due to the current crash in the cryptocurrency market, only $216.5 million will be returned to players.
The fall of Axie Infinity, the king of crypto games
The whole principle ofAxie Infinity lies in the gains that can be made by the players. By multiplying the fights and progressing in the arena, they win rewards in cryptocurrencies that can be exchanged for fiat currencies. These digital assets have also been impacted by the recession in the sector. The SLP, the digital currency obtained by playing, fell from 0.29 euros in July 2021 to 0.0034 euros.
The number of players has also decreased. Bloomberg reported in a survey that the monthly active user base had shrunk by 40%. From now on, Axie Infinity has just over 650,000 players per month, a far cry from the 2.7 million recorded last November.
In order to attract new players, Sky Mavis continues to develop its game and offer new content. The company has also revealed the upcoming launch of “Land Staking”, land that will generate new passive income. A feature that is likely to interest mainly old players rather than attracting new players.