The Norwegian government has successfully frozen and returned $5.7 million in funds associated with the $600 million Ronin exploit that occurred in 2022. Ronin, an Ethereum sidechain supporting the play-to-earn web3 game Axie Infinity by Sky Mavis, was the target of the attack.
Sky Mavis announced the achievement on Friday, acknowledging the collaborative effort involving law enforcement agencies, legal professionals, accountants, and blockchain forensics firms like Chainalysis to recover the assets. Of the recovered funds, 15% will cover expenses, while the remainder will be deposited into the Axie Infinity treasury.
The game developer expressed gratitude to Økokrim and the FBI for their relentless efforts in asset recovery. Despite approximately $40 million in separate assets being frozen by law enforcement, their retrieval timeline remains uncertain.
The Ronin exploit, considered the largest DeFi exploit in history, resulted in the loss of over $600 million in crypto assets in March 2022. The attack, attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, compromised five out of nine validator private keys on the Ronin network, enabling fraudulent transactions that drained funds from the Ronin bridge.
