When Good Bots Go Bad: Inside the $10M Ronin Crypto Heist

The recent hack of Ronin, the Ethereum sidechain built for play-to-earn giant Axie Infinity, saw almost $10 million in Ether vanish quicker than you can say “crypto casserole.” While breaches are nothing new in this industry, the details behind this one highlight wider security issues bubbling under the surface.

Investigators traced the exploit back to an automated trading bot, or MEV bot. These handy tools usually sniff out money-making opportunities, but in Ronin’s case, one happened upon a giant pot of vulnerabilities. Like the SkyNet of crypto networks, the bot went rogue, swiping the Ether before riding off into the sunset.

While we can’t rule out a white hat hacker trying to prove a point, they probably would have returned the goods by now. Either way, the fact that a bot achieved this shows how sophisticated crypto crime has become. Exchanges and networks need to seriously up their security game before the next $10 million bot heist.

The Ronin breach adds to the $266 million lost just last July across various crypto infrastructure. Think we might need some kind of crypto police at this point!