Axie Infinity (AXS), the native token of the eponymous videogame, reversed most of its recent rally after hackers stole more than $600 million from the Ronin Network blockchain that runs the game. RON, the native token on the blockchain, also slumped in value.
AXS price lost as much as 13% since the news of the hack on Tuesday, trading at $62. RON plummeted a whopping 35% to $1.69. The news comes just days ahead of a widely anticipated update to Axie Infinity, called Origins.
Ronin is run by the developer of Axie Infinity- Sky Mavis. The hack comes as a major blow to the Vietnamese developer, who had earlier this month outlined an elaborate plan to increase community governance in AXS. It was currently unclear if the hack had affected these plans.
AXS reverses recent rally
Prior to the hack, AXS was among the best performing cryptocurrencies in March, up as much as 35%. A mix of optimism over the Origins update, AXS’ plans for decentralization, and increasing interest in blockchain games had supported the token in recent weeks.
But today’s losses have negated a bulk of those gains, with the token likely set to extend losses in the coming days as more details over the hack are uncovered. The losses also cost AXS its spot as the second-largest gaming token by market capital, with Sandbox (SAND) taking the spot.
Broader gaming tokens also appeared to falling in the wake of the hack. Decentraland (MANA), the largest gaming token by market capital, lost 3%, while SAND shed 2.8%.
Still, Sky Mavis has received several calls of support from the crypto community. Launched in 2018, Axie Infinity is one the most popular blockchain games made. The game revolves around minting virtual creatures as NFTs, and using them to battle other players.
Hack among the largest DeFi heists to date
The hack, which reportedly took place over the span of a week, targeted an exchange contract on Ronin, and drained it of its liquidity- stealing about $622 million worth of Ethereum and USDcoin in the process.
The last DeFi hack of such magnitude happened in 2021, on the Poly Network. $600 million worth of tokens were stolen, although in a surprising twist, the hacker returned nearly all of the proliferated funds.
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