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#The Wall Street Journal: In the second-biggest crypto heist yet, hackers steal more than $500 million from Axie Infinity game network

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“The Wall Street Journal: In the second-biggest crypto heist yet, hackers steal more than $500 million from Axie Infinity game network”

A cryptocurrency startup that operates a popular online game called “Axie Infinity” said Tuesday that hackers stole more than $500 million worth of cryptocurrency.

“Axie Infinity” publisher Sky Mavis Ltd. said on March 23, hackers infiltrated a part of its Ronin Network, which the game runs on. The infiltrators got access to accounts holding cryptocurrencies and drained 173,600 ether and 25.5 million of the stablecoin USDC.

“The breach happened due to social engineering, not technical flaw,” said Aleksander Larsen, operating chief and co-founder of Sky Mavis. While users are now unable to withdraw or deposit funds to Ronin Network, he said Sky Mavis is committed to ensuring that all of the drained funds are recovered or reimbursed.

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It was the second-largest crypto hack ever, according to analytics firm Elliptic. The assets were worth about $540 million on the date of the theft and are worth about $615 million now.

An expanded version of this story can be found on WSJ.com

Paul Vigna

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SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

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