Binance Recovers $5.8 Million in Stolen Funds From Axie Infinity Hack

On Friday morning, Axie Infinity developers can begin to breathe some fresh air, as Binance revealed it recovered some of the stolen funds, shining a glimmer of hope upon victims. 

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) took to twitter, announcing the exchange had recovered $5.8 million, spread across 86 accounts on the exchange by the Lazarus Group. The primary wallet linked to hackers contained over $280 million worth of ETH, as of press time.

However, data from blockchain security firm Elliptics, revealed that hackers have been using decentralized crypto mixers such as Tornado Cash, to send funds to CEX’s, while also swapping part of the stolen USDC for Ether on DEX’s.

DEXs and mixers to begin blocking malicious actors?

With hacks like Axie Infinity, DEXs and mixers are starting to take steps to begin blocking malicious actors who look to capitalize off their anonymity.

Uniswap recently stated that it now screens addresses associated with illicit activities using blockchain intelligence from TRM Labs.

The exchange claims that TRM Labs uses on-chain data and real-world investigations to identify crimes, and it’ll block any wallet associated with illegal activities. Its Q&A section also adds that its policy is “to prevent people engaged in illegal behavior from using [its] App.”

Tornado Cash, on its part, announced that it is using Oracle Contracts from Chainalysis to block any wallet sanctioned by OFAC. “Maintaining financial privacy is essential to preserving our freedom; however, it should not come at the cost of non-compliance,” the team stated.

According to the platform’s co-founder, Roman Semenov, the screening process will only prevent sanctioned wallets from accessing its DApp interface – but won’t stop the movement of funds into its underlying smart contract, due to its immutability.

Axie Infinity parent company Sky Mavis, still has hopes of recovering the stolen funds, but has begun plans to refund its users after raising $150 million in a funding round aimed at helping it to refund its users.

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