Ronin, the Ethereum sidechain specifically designed for popular NFT game Axie Infinity, has been the victim of a major hack, draining approximately US$625 million worth of WETH and USDC from its bridge.
Sky Mavis – the studio behind Axie Infinity – said the attack started on March 23, almost a week before being noticed yesterday, when a user was unable to withdraw 5k ETH from the bridge. The company is now reportedly in talks with several government agencies to identify the exploiter.
The attack occurred after four Ronin validators and one Axie DAO third-party validator were compromised:
Sky Mavis’s Ronin chain currently consists of nine validator nodes. In order to recognise a Deposit event or a Withdrawal event, 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.
Ronin Network statement
The attacker drained US$25 million USDC and 173.600 ETH (nearly US$600 million) from the bridge that connects Ronin with the Ethereum mainnet by using “hacked private keys” to execute the exploit. In doing so, they were able to forge two fake withdrawals (transactions 1 and 2) and steal the funds.
Sky Mavis is said to be working with Chainalysis to monitor the stolen funds, most of which are still in the hacker’s wallet. Additionally, the company stated that it would migrate its entire node infrastructure, so it might take a while for things to get up and start running again. Also, as a result of the attack, both Ronin and Katana DEX are temporarily halted to avoid further attack vectors.
Jeff Zirlin, co-founder of Sky Mavis, described the hack as “one of the biggest in history” at the recent NFT LA conference:
Let’s take a closer look at today’s altcoins showing breakout signals. We’ll explain what the coin is, then dive into the trading charts and provide some analysis to help you decide.
1. Avalanche (AVAX)
Avalanche AVAX is the fastest smart contracts platform in the blockchain industry, as measured by time-to-finality, and has the most validators securing its activity of any proof-of-stake protocol. Avalanche is blazingly fast, low-cost, and green. Any smart contract-enabled application can outperform its competition on Avalanche. AVAX is the native token of Avalanche. It is a hard-capped, scarce asset that is used to pay for fees, secure the platform through staking, and provide a basic unit of account between the multiple subnets created on Avalanche.
AVAX Price Analysis
At the time of writing, AVAX is ranked the 10th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$77.80. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:
AVAX‘s 70% rally in January ended with an almost 35% retracement as the rest of the altcoin market dropped. Bulls stepped in near the 61.8% retracement of Q4’s move, creating a consolidation that ended with last week’s bullish impulse to resistance near $86.35.
With the 9, 18, and 40 EMAs stacked bullish and a bullish higher-timeframe trend, it’s reasonable to anticipate retracement to possible support before further bullish expansion.
Near the 40 EMA, a broad zone from $68.12 to $65.35 could see interest from bulls before further expansion. If this level fails, bears might capitalise on any sharp moves down in Bitcoin, aiming for possible support near the 80% retracement, at $61.54, and potentially lower to a higher-timeframe support zone between $57.82 and $54.77.
If the higher-timeframe bullish trend resumes and the current resistance near $93.35 breaks, the wicks near $105.84 and the new monthly highs might see profit-taking.
2. Algorand (ALGO)
The Algorand ALGO blockchain is a permissionless, pure proof-of-stake blockchain protocol. Unlike proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains, where the root block must be validated by randomly selected validators (using computing power), in the pure proof-of-stake approach all of the validators are known to one another and only have to agree on the next block in order to create a new block. Algorand was invented to speed up transactions and improve efficiency in response to the slow transaction times of Bitcoin and other blockchains.
ALGO Price Analysis
At the time of writing, ALGO is ranked the 29th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$0.7967. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:
After creating a second equal low during February, ALGO gained nearly 22% into resistance that starts near $0.9122.
Swing traders looking for a continuation to the nearest cluster of relatively equal highs around $1.10 might look for bids near $1.05. More significant resistance rests above, near $1.15. A group of significant swing highs at $1.21 and $1.25 give possible targets if this resistance breaks.
A stop run on the recent low at $0.7460 into possible support beginning near $0.6830 might see stronger bidding. This area also has a confluence with the recent monthly lows.
3. Axie Infinity (AXS)
Axie Infinity AXS is a blockchain-based trading and battling game that is partially owned and operated by its players. The Axie Infinity ecosystem has its own unique governance token, known as Axie Infinity Shards AXS. These are used to participate in key governance votes and will give holders a say in how funds in the Axie Community Treasury are spent.
AXS Price Analysis
At the time of writing, AXS is ranked the 40th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$52.62. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:
AXS‘s relatively small 25% range could suggest that a larger move is setting up in February.
Aggressive bulls could look for entries at the most recent area of support formed near $49.22. However, equal lows near $45.12 make a tempting target for a stop run into this support. This move could reach support near $42.67.
A decisive move to the downside could run stops below the second set of relatively equal lows near $40.23, possibly reaching support at an old swing high and a daily gap near $38.58.
A recent level near $58.84 provided resistance and caused a recent swing high to form near $63.88, offering first targets. A move through this high may arrive at new monthly high levels near $68.31 and $75.30.
These coins have high liquidity on Binance Exchange, so that could help with trading on AUD/USDT/BTC pairs. And if you’re looking at buying and HODLing cryptos, then Swyftx Exchange is an easy-to-use popular choice in Australia.
Just before the dawn of the release of Season 20 for the world’s most popular play-to-earn blockchain game, Axie Infinity, the in-game reward token Smooth Love Potion (SLP) shot sky-high. Before a slight pullback, the SLP token went 3X in just days.
The SLP rally follows the announcement of a deflationary update to the game’s economy, removing user rewards for completing certain in-game missions, including Adventure Mode SLP and Daily Quest SLP, which “will be sunset (reduced to 0)”.
Season 20 is close and when it’s released, a variety of important economic balancing changes will be implemented.
Once players have collected a team of Axies, they can collect SLP tokens by completing battles. Those tokens can be redeemed for new in-game features, including breeding new Axies.
Among the changes coming in the new Season 20 update will be a 56 percent reduction in the daily supply of SLP tokens. Players will no longer be able to earn SLP from daily questing or playing in adventure mode, thus increasing the tokens’ scarcity.
SLP Listed on Binance
Earlier this week, Binance added SLP/BNB as a trading pair, allowing traders to directly exchange BNB for SLP on the exchange. Whenever tokens get a listing on a major exchange such as Binance, it often results in a price pump as it makes the token more accessible for new investors.
