- Ronin Bridge, the sidechain for Axie Infinity, underwent a breach, losing Ethereum worth $9.33 Million.
- The first time, Ronin Bridge was hacked in March 2022, resulting in a $600 Million wipeout.
- The broader cryptocurrency market has lost $266 Million in 16 attacks, excluding the recent Ronin Bridge attack.
Recently, hackers successfully wiped out Ethereum (ETH) worth $9.33 Million from the Ronin Bridge.
Based on the Ethereum blockchain, the sidechain for Axie Infinity, Ronin Bridge,
underwent a theft of 3,996 Ether. The players primarily use this chain to transfer assets from the Ronin chain to the Ethereum network.
PeckShield, a blockchain security firm, identified the suspected activities and confirmed the theft of 3,999 ETH from Ronin Bridge. Following the Wipeout of funds, the sidechain halted its activities immediately.
It’s the third time Ronin has lost a significant amount of funds; the first was the Ronin Bridge attack in March 2022, which resulted in a $600 Million wipeout, followed by the Axie & Ronin co-founder wallet hack in February 2024.
“The Ronin Network bridge has been paused while we investigate a report from whitehats about a potential MEV exploit,” the co-founder/chairman of Ronin and Axie wrote in X post.
Ronin Bridge Hack 2022 Explained
In March 2022, the sidechain battled a theft, resulting in a $600 Million wipeout in cryptocurrencies. Ronin lost 173,600 Ethereum and 25.5 Million USDC coins; the bad actor compromised the smart contract helping them to drain funds.
As per the information, hackers identified a vulnerability in the bridge’s validation mechanism that helped them fake transactions and drain the available funds. The bad actors leveraged social engineering and others to drain the funds.
The hack was one of the biggest thefts in the crypto market in 2022. However, the attack raised severe concerns over the security of cross-chain bridges.
Major Crypto Hacks 2024
In 2024 so far, the crypto market has lost $266 Million in 16 attacks. The breach of WazirX became the most ruinous attack of July 2024.
On-chain analysts broadly claim that the Lazarus Group of North Korea led the attack on WazirX. PeckShield claimed that 61,154 ETH looted from the Indian trading giant are still under hackers’ control.
Ethereum-based decentralized lending and borrowing platform Compound Finance lost $24 Million in a breach (Potential Governance Attack). Li.Fi, a bridging protocol, lost roughly $11 Million in a smart contract exploit.
A study by Immunefi demonstrates that the cryptocurrency market lost over $1.9 Billion to 149 hacks, scams, and rug-pulls in 2024. This is a catastrophic growth of 16.3% compared to last year.
Gala Games, a Web3 gaming ecosystem, was compromised by some bad actors, resulting in a loss of $22 Million. The report cites that the hackers traded 600 Million Gala tokens for 5,193 ETH.
