Last week Sky Mavis, the Vietnam-based company behind the crypto game Axie Infinity, revealed that a hacker stole hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crypto from its blockchain. Sky Mavis realized it had been attacked when a user could not make a withdrawal six days after the breach, and the company froze transactions on its compromised Ronin Network bridge.
Now Sky Mavis has announced it’s received $150 million in investments that “will be used to ensure that all users affected by the Ronin Validator Hack will be reimbursed.” At nearly the exact same time, it’s launching a new version of the game, Axie Infinity: Origin. According to Sky Mavis CEO Trung Nguyen, “As a team, we have made an intentional decision to focus on what lies ahead.”
Alpha test launch pushed back
The new standalone free-to-play Origin web game is available for downloading on Mavis Hub, Sky Mavis’ distribution platform. Originally, the free-to-play alpha test was supposed to launch last week, but the company pushed the launch back to today after the hack, said Jeff Zirlin, a cofounder of Sky Mavis and growth lead. It isn’t available on Android or iOS yet, but a web-based mobile version is coming.
“We wanted to keep pushing, and we wanted to make progress and, and show the community our hard work,” Zirlin said. “So that’s why we’re going forward with the early access launch this week. And we’re really excited about it. I think the community is super excited as well.”
