Crypto Hacker Siphons $625 Million From Axie Infinity's Ronin Sidechain

upstart writes:

Crypto Hacker Siphons $625 Million From Axie Infinity's Ronin Sidechain:

Sky Mavis, the company behind the popular blockchain game Axie Infinity, announced it was the target of a $625 million hack. Taking advantage of vulnerabilities in the Ronin sidechain implementation, the hacker has shimmied away with around 173,600 ETH (valued at $594.6 million) and $25.5 million in U.S. dollars. Experts expect this to be one of the biggest hacks in the relatively short-lived history of cryptocurrency when all cards hit the proverbial table, but it's far from the first.

Axie Infinity is so popular that it's the number one marketplace for NFT collectibles. That puts it ahead of famous marketplaces such as OpenSea, which saw the introduction of the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs - of which the least expensive one currently goes for ~130 ETH ($356K).

Sidechains (also referred to as L2 chains) are solutions built alongside L1 chains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Algorand. These solutions help skirt blockchain congestion by offloading transactions that would occur on the L1 chain to the speedier, usually custom-built sidechains. Also known as Bridges or Wormholes, these allow users to bring their L1 chain funds (in this case, Ethereum) to other blockchain ecosystems. Crypto moved to these chains is locked as collateral, and an equivalent value is minted in whatever token the chain uses to operate. Being relatively stationary targets whose locked value tends to only increase over time, Bridges are particularly attractive targets for bad actors.

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.