Hackers loot $615 million in latest cryptocurrency heist

Blockchain project Ronin said Tuesday that hackers have stolen nearly $615 million worth of cryptocurrencies from its systems in what would be one of the largest cryptocurrency heists of all time.

The project said unidentified hackers stole 173,600 “Ether” tokens and $25.5 million tokens on March 23. At current exchange rates, the funds are worth $615 million, but at the time of the attack it was $540 million.

According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, this is the second largest crypto theft of all time.

Ronin is used to power the popular online game Axe Infinitywhich uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and is the largest NFT collection by sales volume ever, according to NFT market tracker CryptoSlam.

Ronin said in a blog post that the hacker used stolen private keys — the passwords needed to access crypto funds — to get away with the funds.

Ronin said it discovered the hack yesterday. “We are working directly with various government agencies to ensure the criminals are brought to justice,” it said, adding that it was being spoken to Axe Infinity how to ensure no user funds are lost.

Ronin users cannot withdraw or deposit funds on the network, it said.

Ronin said it is working with major blockchain tracker Chainalysis to track down the stolen funds. Most of the funds are still in the hacker’s digital wallet, Ronin said.

Hacks have long plagued crypto platforms. Jump Trading’s cryptocurrency arm announced last month that it had repaid more than $320 million to crypto platform Wormhole after the decentralized finance side was hit by one of the largest crypto heists of all time.

Last August, hackers behind what is likely the biggest digital coin heist returned nearly all of the over $610 million they stole from DeFi site Poly Network.

In 2018, $530 million worth of digital tokens were stolen from Tokyo-based platform Coincheck. Mt Gox, another Japanese exchange, collapsed in 2014 after hackers stole half a billion dollars in crypto.