Jeff “Jihoz” Zirlin, the co-founder of the blockchain-based game Axie Infinity, has confirmed a security breach that led to the loss of approximately US$9.7 million in Ether from his personal wallets.
The incident, which involved the unauthorized withdrawal of over 2,790 Ethereum, was first detected by Web3 security firm Ancilia, Inc.
The stolen funds were quickly moved to Tornado, a cryptocurrency mixer that obscures the trail of transactions.
Zirlin reassured the public that the breach was limited to his personal accounts and did not affect the Ronin blockchain or Sky Mavis, the company behind Axie Infinity.
Zirlin’s personal statement on social media emphasized that the leaked private keys were not associated with the validation or operations of the Ronin chain.
Axie Infinity is the top-selling non-fungible token (NFT) collection of all-time with over US$4.26 billion in sales, according to CryptoSlam data.
The collection dominates the transaction volume on the Ronin blockchain, which is the third-ranked blockchain in all-time sales volume with US$4.26 billion.
