• Ronin Network pauses bridge after $9.8 million exploit.
• Initital updates suggest it may be a white hat hacker.

Ronin, the blockchain network for games and which powers the Axie Infinity game, has announced that its pausing its bridge.

The announcement on Aug. 6 comes amid a suspected white hat hacking activity that saw over $9.8 million drained into a MEV bot.

What happened?

Ronin’s exploit reportedly had the attacker stealing 3,996 Ether (ETH) tokens from the blockchain. On-chain security platform alerted the community to the suspected hacking via a post on X.

#PeckShieldAlert @Ronin_Network #whitehacked? or Hacked? (w/ ~ $9.33M) pic.twitter.com/wfaY0zhVdI

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) August 6, 2024

In an update, Ronin confirmed the exploit and noted the network pause would allow its security team to investigate before providing a report.

The Ronin Network bridge has been paused while we investigate a report from whitehats about a potential MEV exploit,” Aleksander Larsen, the co-founder of Axie Infinity and Ronin Network, said in a statement posted on X.

“We will follow up with more information shortly,” Larsen, also known as “Psycheout” on X, added.

According to him, the bridge currently secures more than $850 million, funds that he said were safe

Is it a white hat hacker?

The latest incident involving Ronin’s bridge comes as the market reels amid massive price crash. Axie Infinity’s that had plunged to lows of $3.89, has rebounded amid the broader market’s bounce. The AXS traded around $4.41, more than 11% up in the past 24 hours at the time of writing.

Unlike in March 2022 when a $625 million exploit left AXS nosediving, traders haven’t reacted negatively to the news.

Probably, it’s due to initial reports indicating that the $9.8 million hack on August 6 is likely a white hack. If this is the case, the attacker will return the funds after Ronin patches the vulnerability.