Ronin Suffers $12M Exploit, RON Spikes 6%

Ronin, the gaming-focused Layer 1 blockchain developed by the team behind Axie Infinity, suffered a $12 million exploit early Tuesday

Gaming-focused Layer 1 blockchain Ronin, which was developed by the team behind Axie Infinity, suffered a $12 million exploit on Tuesday that forced the team to shut down the network temporarily.

According to the Ronin team, attackers were able to fool the Ronin bridge into misinterpreting the operators’ vote threshold that is required to withdraw funds after an upgrade was implemented earlier today. This allowed the attackers to drain 4,000 ETH, which is nearly $10 million, and $2 million in USDC. The attackers, who the team believes to be white-hat hackers, are allegedly responding in good faith.

Interestingly, the RON token appeared to be largely unaffected by the news, and instead spiked by 6% to reach $1.4 today. Investors also seem to be fading Ronin, as the network’s market cap currently sits at $475 million, which marks a steep 65% decline from its May peak of $1.3 billion.

The $12 million that was drained from the bridge represents the upper limit for withdrawals that are permitted by the bridge.

“Earlier today, we were notified by white-hats about a potential exploit on the Ronin bridge,” the Ronin team wrote on X. “After verifying the reports, the bridge was paused approximately 40 minutes after the first on-chain action was spotted.”

The team also stated that they are negotiating with the responsible parties, and that “regardless of the result of negotiations, all user funds are safe, and any shortfalls will be re-deposited into the bridge when it opens up.”

White-hat hackers are individuals or entities that attack protocols in order to identify vulnerabilities so they can be fixed before malicious actors (also known as black-hat hackers) can exploit them. In the majority of such cases, the white-hats return the stolen assets in exchange for a bounty.

Ronin has been the target of attacks in the past. In March 2022, it suffered the largest DeFi exploit to date, when hackers drained it of more than $600 million.