Sky Mavis Announces Axie Infinity: Origin, $150 Million in Investments Received After Ronin Hack

Sky Mavis, the creator of Axie Infinity, announced that it has obtained $150 million in investments, which will be used to repay all users affected by the recent $600 Ronin Validator Hack.

At almost the same time, it is also releasing a new edition of the game, Axie Infinity: Origin, which VentureBeat described to have a lot at stake in restoring confidence in Sky Mavis.

Axie Infinity Creator Raises $150 Million and Launches Another NFT Game

Sky Mavis, the creator of Axie Infinity, has announced the global early access launch of a new version of the game, Axie Infinity: Origin, a week after Sky Mavis' Ronin Network was hacked in a heist where Axie Infinity gamers and Sky Mavis were robbed of more than $600 million. As a result, the launch of the new game has a lot riding on Sky Mavis regaining their trust, VentureBeat reported.

At nearly the exact same time, Sky Mavis, as reported by TechCrunch, has announced that it has raised $150 million in funding backed by crypto exchange Binance to aid reimburse users who lost assets after the occurrence of the biggest crypto heist to date.

The funds will be merged with cash from Sky Mavis' balance sheet to compensate all users who lost money as a result of the attack on Ronin. After a security upgrade and audits, the company plans to reopen the Ronin bridge, which might take several weeks. In the meanwhile, Binance offers Ronin users liquidity by enabling them to readily withdraw and deposit Ethereum (ETH).

CEO of Sky Mavis Trung Nguyen said: "Sky Mavis is committed to reimbursing all of our users' funds and implementing rigorous internal security measures to prevent future attacks."

According to The Verge, Web3-promoting venture capital firm A16z, crypto exchange Binance, and Animoca Brands, which owns The Sandbox, are among several other companies who paid in to save Sky Mavis from a possible collapse.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao wrote in a statement that since working together on the Axie Infinity project on Binance Launchpad, the crypto exchange platform observed the Sky Mavis team's incredible work and growth. "We strongly believe Sky Mavis will bring a lot of value and growth for the larger industry and we believe it's necessary to support them as they work hard to resolve the recent incident," said Zhao.

$600 million Crypto Heist

A total of 56,000 ETH tokens from the treasury were stolen in the breach, according to Sky Mavis, and the funds will remain uncollateralized while the firm works with legal authorities to recover them. They intend to wait two years before asking the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to vote on what to do next, The Verge reported.

Meanwhile, the Sky Mavis team claims the theft on March 23, which went undiscovered until March 29, was "socially engineered," exploiting flaws in trade-offs made in the quest for mainstream adoption. In terms of the stolen funds, around 168k ETH are still in the wallet where the thief or criminals left them.

It's extremely difficult to retrieve assets following a crypto breach, let alone return them to users, TechCrunch noted.