The Ronin bridge hack in 2022 was the biggest DeFi hack ever, with hackers stealing over $600 million.
Norwegian authorities have managed to recover $5.7 million of the stolen funds from the Ronin hack.
85% of the recovered funds will go back to the Axie Infinity treasury to support the game.
An additional $40 million in stolen assets from the hack have been frozen by Norway.
According to a new report from Merkle Science, smart contract hacks are decreasing, but private key hacks are on the rise.
The $624 million hack on the Ronin Bridge will forever be remembered as the largest hack by far, between 2022 and 2024.
In fact, the Ronin bridge hack is currently the largest defi hack so far, with the second largest hack being the 2021 Poly Bridge hack where $611 million was carted away in an access control exploit.
However, things appear to be going well for the Ronin network two years after the hack, considering how Norway has managed to track down, recover and return millions of stolen money, with more on the way.
Here are the details.
For the unfamiliar, the Ronin network hack happened in March 2022, affecting the Ronin bridge that served the popular web3 game, Axie Infinity.
In what will now be remembered as the largest defi exploit in history, more than $600 million got siphoned off, with the North Korean cybercrime syndicate known as the Lazarus group identified as the culprit.
Two years after that, the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (also known as Økokrim) managed to freeze and return an impressive $5.7 million of the stolen funds.
Økokrim was supported by the FBI, several intercontinental security agencies, and blockchain security firms like Chainalysis, as highlighted by this tweet.
In the tweet from Sky Mavis, the developers behind Axie Infinity expressed gratitude for all of the support received, and have promised to return around 85% of the recovered funds to the the Axie Infinity treasury to support the game’s ecosystem.
The remaining 15% on the other hand, will be used to compensate the affected parties in the hack.
The tweet also highlights that an extra $40 million in assets from the hack has also been frozen, with no word yet about recovery.
“The Norwegian National Authority […] (Økokrim) has successfully frozen and returned 5.7 M USD in stolen assets from the Ronin bridge incident.
~ 15% of recovered assets will be used to cover costs and expenses incurred by those involved in the recovery efforts. The remaining 85% of recovered funds will be deposited into the Axie Infinity treasury.”
Overall, the Ronin bridge hack shows the extent of the incessant smart contract hacks between 2021 and 2022, which allowed the attackers to cart off the funds.
Decreased smart contract hacks, increased private key hacks
In terms of silver linings, however, according to a recent report from Merkle Science’s HackHub, smart contract vulnerabilities have witnessed a marked decline between then and now.
Merkle Science reports that this decline is due to the strides in security the crypto industry has made so far.
However, in less-than-positive developments, smart contract vulnerabilities have risen in frequency since 2022, showing a need for stronger private key management protocols.
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