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Axie Infinity Co-Founder Losses Over $10 Million In Hack, AXS Holds Firm

Two personal crypto wallets belonging to Jeff “Jihoz” Zirlin, the co-founder of Sky Mavis, the company behind the popular play-to-earn (P2E) game Axie Infinity, have been compromised, reports on February 23 show.

Following this hack, over $10 million worth of various crypto assets were stolen, primarily RON, the native token of Ronin Chain, the Ethereum sidechain designed explicitly for Axie Infinity.

Axie Infinity Co-Founder Losses Over $10 Million In Hack

According to Lookonchain data, the hacker got away with 3.2 million RON worth over $9.53 million. The co-founder also lost over $834,000 worth of Wrapped Ethereum (ETH). There were other small amounts of PIXEL, the native token of Pixels–a gaming platform; SLP, the coin priming Axie Infinity’s metaverse; and USDC, a stablecoin. 

RON outflows from Zirlin's wallet | Source: Lookonchain via X

 

Zirlin held around 164 AXS worth less than $1,300. The hack has shown an unexpected holding pattern, especially among project founders. That the co-founder only held 164 AXS is strange, considering the role played in Axie Infinity. The P2E game has distributed billions of assets since its popularity peaked in the last bull cycle.

Stolen assets, Lookonchain data reveals, were reportedly converted to ETH and deposited into Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer whose co-founders have an ongoing court case in the United States.

In charges brought forward in August 2023, the prosecution team alleges that North Korean hackers used Tornado Cash to launder millions, if not billions, of dollars worth of stolen coins. Some of these tokens were from the Ronin hack, which lost over $600 million in March 2022. 

Dedicated To Mission; RON And AXS Post Minor Losses

Zirlin confirmed the hack on X on February 23, emphasizing that it was “limited to my accounts.” The hack did not affect the Ronin chain or Sky Mavis operations. The co-founder also added that the compromised private keys were not connected to the company’s internal systems.

Zirlin said they have “strict security measures in place for all chain-related activities to assuage fears.” The co-founder also remains upbeat, assuring concerned crypto community members that the project will continue pursuing its mission of bringing “economic freedom” to all users.

AXS price is moving sideways on the daily chart | Source: AXSUSDT on Binance, TradingView

So far, AXS and RON prices remain stable but lower, looking at the performance in the daily chart. AXS and RON have been edging lower since February 21, cooling off after sharp gains from early Q4 2023. 

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YGG Surged 580% Before Crashing, Why Are Whales Rapidly Selling?

The Yield Guild Games (YGG) token recently surged, rising by 580% in less than a week before crashing, as visible in the daily chart. YGG is currently changing hands at $0.37 with a market capitalization of over $101 million when writing on August 7. 

Prices have since retraced from the $0.99 recorded earlier today as the token fell by over 60%. The recent spike and general volatility have seen trading volumes soar as trading activity is concentrated on Binance and KuCoin.

YGG Whales Dumping

Amidst the notable growth, there are reports of venture capital (VC) companies that initially backed the project, backing off and reportedly selling the token primarily on Binance. For instance, Lookonchain data on August 7 shows that Bitkraft Ventures and DWF Labs have moved their YGG to Binance and will likely sell. 

Last year, DWF Labs received 29.13 million YGG from Yield Guild Games Treasury. However, on-chain data shows that most of these tokens have since been moved to exchanges. 

Bitkraft used Wintermute and FalconX to move coins to Binance. Trackers show that the official Wintermute Trading wallet has deposited 11.1 million YGG to exchanges over the past four days. The crypto market maker still holds 2.5 million YGG. 

YGG price on august 7| Source: YGGUSDT on Binance, TradingView

Youbi Capital has also deposited 1 million YGG to Binance. Currently, it holds 11.6 million YGG. Sfermion is also joining the selling bandwagon, which initially claimed 1.2 million YGG. It used FalconX, a provider serving crypto whales, to deposit the token to Binance.

Partnership With Axie Infinity Developer

Yield Guild Games is a gaming guild primarily focusing on play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain games. As a community, the platform uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and has created a collaborative network of players and investors to navigate NFT gaming. 

In mid-July, YGG partnered with Axie Infinity’s developer to release SUPERQUESTS. The feature, Yield Guild Games said, aims to enable guild members to engage in web3 games and earn enhanced in-game rewards. They added that this initiative was a significant step towards improving the web3 gaming experience for members.  

Over the months, NFT, metaverse, and blockchain gaming activity have rapidly contracted as token asset prices fell throughout 2022. Furthermore, fears of regulatory crackdown appear to be discouraging developers. In June, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cited AXS by Axie Infinity as an example of unregistered security.

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Axie Infinity Price On A Tear With 22% Spike In Last 24 Hours – How Long Can This Last?

Axie Infinity (AXS), a cryptocurrency with an overall valuation of $964.02 million, is in the midst of a bullish run that enabled it to tally an impressive 22% jump in the last 24 hours.

At the time of writing, according to tracking from Coingecko, the digital asset is changing hands at $8.79 and has managed to increase its value by more than 33% within the previous seven days.

Here’s a quick glance:

  • AXS has gone up by almost 40% within the last two weeks
  • Axie Infinity nears the $9 marker
  • Token is poised for a surge of more than 30% to reclaim the $10 territory

With its current momentum, the crypto has also surged by 39.2% over the last two weeks and has trimmed its monthly loss to just 16.3%.

After being in a steady downfall for six months, Axie Infinity finally found some relief and is poised to make further push to breach the psychological $10 marker.

Technical Indicators Suggest Axie Buyers In Control

Among the various analysis points for the crypto asset, its Relative Strength Index is the most promising one as it shows a significant increase in buying momentum – a situation that usually heralds bullish growth.

Source: TradingView

In addition, the AXS 20 and 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) confirms the thesis for a potential continued surge given the altcoin’s volatility remains at “medium.”

With the current price action, it is most likely that traders will be interested in the asset’s attempt to retest the breached resistance during the next trading sessions which might trigger an increase of as high as 35.8%.

If that happens, Axie Infinity will change hands at $11.8, the lower zone of the set point of resistance for the crypto (the highest of which is $15.4).

However, in the event that the earlier mentioned scenarios don’t unfold, the cryptocurrency might have to revisit its supports levels standing at between $8.3 and $7.5.

Rising NFT Sales Volume Fuels AXS Rally

Cryptoslamp, an NFT industry data aggregator recently shared some information regarding the positive development of the digital asset class’s sales volume going up by almost 10% within the last 24 hours.

During the same time, NFT-focused virtual coins such as ApeCoin (APE), Sandbox (SAND) and Flow (FLOW) witnessed a major uptick in their respective prices.

In addition, it would appear that Axie Infinity has also benefited from a social media post indicating that more than 600 members of the AXS community has gathered to share ideas on how to help shape a good future for the project.

AXS total market cap at $854 million on the daily chart | Featured image: Skip Prichard, Chart: TradingView.com