Last March 23, Sky Mavis, the game developer of the popular play-to-earn NFT game Axie Infinity, was hacked for a total of $622 million in cryptocurrency, the largest hack in DeFi of all time. The hacker exploited a vulnerability in the bridge connecting Axie’s Ronin Network with the Ethereum Network. However, despite this, hongkong-based game software company Animoca Brands continues its unwavering support for Axie Infinity
Many have seen this hack as a part of a serious problem seen by some gamers and skeptics with Axie Infinity. The hack along with the continued devaluation of AXS and SLP tokens have caused confidence in the game to waiver with many selling their NFTs and quitting altogether.
Despite this, Sky Mavis continues to solve some of the issues they have experienced. Upon the disclosure of the hack on March 29, the team shared their plans on how to recover the money including a round of new funding that was led by Binance where they raised $150 million. Major investors included Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, and Animoca Brands.
Axie Infinity is currently the largest blockchain-enabled NFT game in the space right now which gained popularity last year when it became an alternate source of income for those stuck in the pandemic lockdown. It has seen a decline in the value of its crypto tokens which caused a dip in confidence from the community. However, Animoca Brands continues to back the team behind Axie Infinity and has confidence in its business model.
In an interview with Decrypt, Animoca Brands Founder and Executive Chair Yat Siu expressed their faith in Axie Infinity and the team behind the game and the kind of opportunity it is bringing to bring blockchain games into the mainstream:
“It’s one of the best teams in this space. They have an incredibly powerful community. They know exactly what they need to solve here.”
The Sky Mavis team developed the game back in 2017 and released it in 2018 with a small loyal fanbase. The team and the game carried on until its explosive growth last year in 2021.
Siu has declared his support for Sky Mavis citing their resilience in enduring what was known as the crypto winter a few years back:
“This is a company that weathered the true winter in 2018-2019,” Siu said. “That’s when it was really tough, right? So if they can pull through then, they can definitely pull through now.”.
He’s also offered the same vote of confidence on twitter:
We are incredibly proud to support @AxieInfinity and the whole community, we were there for you 4 years ago, we are there for you today! @trungfinity @Jihoz_Axie @Psycheout86 + everyone at @SkyMavisHQ are top builders in #blockchaingaming #wagmi #friends https://t.co/NIvWTnZk4j
— Yat Siu (@ysiu) April 6, 2022
Siu also believes that it’s just good business sense for them to continue supporting Axie Infinity based on their performance and how they have worked in the past. Siu also says that their support for Axie “signal the kind of collaborative spirit that is Web3.”
There is a general distrust among people in the mainstream gaming community of NFT games and anything related to Web 3 with most associating it with microtransactions while some consider them as scams. The move by Animoca Brands could potentially be seen as giving confidence to the emerging NFT game market.