Ronin Network bailed out by crypto giant Binance after hack

A cryptocurrency and NFT games company which was hacked for $540m (£412m) last month says its customers will now be reimbursed after a cash injection.

Hackers emptied the company’s Ronin Network platform on 23 March after exploiting a security flaw.

A total of $400m of the stolen funds was owned by customers who won digital coins playing the game Axie Infinity.

The company confirmed that all money would be safe after an injection from cryptocurrency giant Binance.

Vietnamese games developer Sky Mavis, which runs the Ronin Network as well as Axie Infinity, says Binance has invested $150m into the firm.

The remaining money owed to customers will be paid for from cash reserves, it said.

A spokeswoman also said the company is working with law enforcement to recover the rest of the money, and not looking to fill the $140m hole.

Axie Infinity has millions of players around the world who fight cartoon pets called Axies.

The game is very popular with players hoping to win cryptocurrency and collect the game’s non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

It is particularly big in the Philippines, where playing has become a full-time and potentially lucrative job.

Ronin Network allows players to exchange the digital coins they earn in Axie Infinity with other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum.

The firm admitted that it took it six days to notice that a hacker had exploited a security flaw to transfer $540m worth of cryptocurrency to themselves – by which time the value of the coins had risen to $615m.

The hack is the second biggest crypto hack ever, and the latest in a string of mass crypto heists in the last year totalling well over $2bn.