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The Largest Crypto Exploit Ever: Axie Infinity Server Hacked

$625 Million Stolen, MetaPiggyBanks, Axie Infinity Breakdown

March 30, 2022

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What's Dropping ⚡

  • DC is releasing yet another NFT collection, and the roadmap is actually pretty dope. Owners can anticipate AR functionality of their unique 3D-rendered Bat Cowl, exclusive behind-the-scenes content, and new features dropped every 52 days.

  • NASA is assisting in a project to get NFTs to the moon... literally. Jeff Koons, the artist behind the balloon dog sculptures, is creating an NFT collection paired with physical sculptures called “Moon Phases” which the artist will send to the Moon.

  • A college student is selling his soul as an NFT. If you’re on the market for a new soul, the current bid (at the time of writing) is 0.11ETH. You can read the agreement here.

  • EDM artist Diplo releases the new track "Don't Forget My Love" and makes a percentage of streaming royalties available for purchase as NFTs. Along with other benefits, the collection comes in three tiers with varying utilities.

  • Ridiculous meme collection Will Smith Slap DAO popped off a cool 45K before falling off the edge of the earth and signals a new low (or high?) for joke collections.

  • Gaming giant Bandai Namco plans a music-themed NFT platform called World of Den-On-Bu. This coincides with the release of multi-media projects focused on anime characters and electronic music.

  • Is the blockchain not secure enough down here on Earth? Well, what about blockchain in space? Company SpaceChain is rumored to have collaborated with SpaceX, with the communal goal of a truly decentralized infrastructure that is beyond the reach of anything a hacker can utilize here on Earth. ETD? April.

  • Cryptovoxels makes the decision to rebrand with the snappier name Voxels. The team plans to follow up on this name change with the launch of their governance token. The company is currently ironing out some issues with scam websites utilizing its brand name.

  • A young group of graduates has created Greenwood District Society, a collection of NFTs with the mission of further educating black communities on cryptocurrency. This initiative has partnered with local Motown Square Pizza and hopes to collaborate with at least one Black-owned business from each state. GDS will be launching towards the end of April.

Axie Infinity Hack: $625 Million Stolen

On March 29th Axie Infinity experienced a hack that resulted in lost funds of close to $625 million (173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC). By exploiting Sky Mavis and Axie DAO’s validator nodes, the attacker was able to take the funds by exploiting the 5/9 validation rule on the Ronin network. In order to deposit on or withdraw from the network, “five out of the nine validator signatures are needed. The attacker managed to get control over Sky Mavis’s four Ronin Validators and a third-party validator run by Axie DAO.”

Full Breakdown Of Axie Infinity Later In Article

The attack was undertaken by using hacked private keys to forge withdrawals from the network. And funny thing is, this attack happened last week. The attack has laid dormant from the public eye due to the nature of its sophistication. The only reason it was even found was when someone was unable to withdraw 5,000 ETH from the bridge.

Ronin is working diligently to get to the bottom of this exploit. They have already stopped all incoming and outgoing transactions, meaning that you cannot withdraw or deposit on the network. This goes to show that no blockchain is immune to exploitation. While others may be more secure, bad actors will always find ways to take advantage of rules within the digital marketplace. One of the rules being: You don’t steal. We will update this story as more develops. Stay safe. (further in the email is a breakdown of what Axie Infinity is)

Up & Coming 🚀

MetaPiggyBanks

Have you ever seen an NFT containing other NFTs, Cryptos, and more crazy rewards? That’s what MetaPiggyBanks is all about! Like a real piggy bank, the more you hold, the more you earn. To break your piggy or not, that’s the question! MetaPiggyBanks is not like any other project! MPB is made by a professional French designer who works for famous luxury brands. The team is composed of experts in blockchain technologies and more generally Web3. Our project is innovative with a piggy bank system that guarantees the price of your NFT and thanks to the DAO the holders are able to manage the treasury together to buy other NFTs and put them in the big collective piggy bank. We have created a project whose fundamental, utility, team, and graphic designs are innovative and very solid!  

Collections featured in our up-and-coming include paid advertising in order that we may inform our audience of all projects that come across our radar. please do additional due diligence, as we have not had the ability to speak extensively with each of the teams or creators behind these collections.

What is Axie Infinity?

Axie Infinity is a muted powerhouse. Despite not making headlines as often as more pop-culturally significant PFP projects like BAYC or Doodles it nonetheless has the most traded NFT collection of all time. In fact, it is the most actively searched NFT on Google of all time. Axie Infinity is a P2E (play to earn) decentralized game operating on the Ethereum blockchain invented by the Vietnam-based Sky Mavis and inspired by the gaming styles of Pokemon and Tamagotchi.

Axie differs from Pokemon in the fact that the users own the various unique digital assets that constitute the working ecosystem of the game. In other words, gamers operate the economy of the game such that if you decide to join the game tomorrow, you would do so by purchasing an Axie from a user who has bred one and posted it for sale. By October of 2021, it was reported that the game has generated close to 2.3 billion dollars in total sales volume since its inception in 2018. Its success has attracted the attention of fiat currency investors and raised roughly $160 million dollars between Series A and Series B funding. Despite the backlash that Mavis Sky and Axie will receive in light of this breach it is important to remember the precedent they are setting nonetheless as pioneers in the P2E gaming revolution. 

Meme Drop 💧

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Disclaimer: The Drop DOES NOT provide financial advice. All content is for informational purposes only. The Drop is not a registered investment, legal, or tax advisor or a broker/dealer. Trading any crypto-related asset is extremely risky and could result in significant capital losses. 

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