Norwegian authorities have successfully recovered $5.7 million worth of cryptocurrency that was stolen during the 2022 hack of Axie Infinity.
The funds were part of the infamous $620 million theft from the Ronin Bridge, a critical component of the popular online game’s infrastructure.
Sky Mavis, the company behind Axie Infinity, announced the recovery on Friday via social media.
The National Authority carried out the operation for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Økokrim) in collaboration with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.
Approximately 15% of the reclaimed assets will be used to cover recovery costs, with the remaining 85% set to be reintegrated into Axie Infinity’s treasury.
Sky Mavis expressed profound gratitude to the Økokrim and the FBI for their relentless efforts in tracking and retrieving the stolen funds.
The Ronin bridge hack, attributed to North Korean cybercriminals, exploited a security vulnerability, allowing hackers to siphon off a substantial amount of cryptocurrency.
Reports indicated that the breach was facilitated through a sophisticated phishing attack, where hackers deceived a Sky Mavis engineer into downloading spyware under the guise of a job application.
Sky Mavis also mentioned that an additional $40 million in separate crypto assets have been frozen.
However, further details on this recovery effort remain sparse, with no specific timeline provided for the return of these funds.
