Popular gaming-related blockchain Ronin, the home to massive titles like Axie Infinity, was exploited on Tuesday, August 6. Onlookers assumed that a hacker made away with 3,996 ETH worth $9.8 million locked in the blockchain.
Blockchain security company PeckShield took to X to provide some good news about the exploit. It stated that the exploit may have been executed by a white hat hacker. Its post read, “#PeckShieldAlert @Ronin_Network #whitehacked? or Hacked? (w/ ~ $9.33M).”
White hat hackers are ethical hackers who identify bugs in code and exploit them to bring attention to the issues so developers can fix them before nefarious actors take advantage. Such hackers return the assets they grabbed to highlight vulnerabilities.
The white hat hacker theory stemmed from the wallet address associated with this exploit, as seen on Etherscan. This $9.8 million transaction stemming from Ronin reached a wallet titled ‘MEV Bot: 0x4ab.’ The MEV wallet then sent a smaller amount—3.9 ETH—to another wallet named ‘beaverbuild.’
As that occurred, an Axie Infinity deployer left an on-chain message aimed at the individual(s) behind the MEV bot. It read, “Hey, thanks a lot for white hat saving user funds today. Can we chat over Blockscan chat?”
As the funds look like they will make their way back to the Ronin Network, this is not an isolated incident in the industry. Just last month, Rho Markets experienced an exploit conducted by MEV bots. The $7.6 million they grabbed returned to the protocol in a week.
However, not everyone has been so lucky. Crypto crimes have shot up recently as the asset class has expanded its market capitalization this year. WazirX, an Indian crypto exchange, was hacked for $230 million in July. July observed a whopping $266 million hacked from various protocols and service providers, with WazirX’s losses taking the lead.
