‘Axie Infinity’ CEO moved $3 million in crypto tokens before disclosing massive hack

On March 23rd, hackers broke into Axie Infinity’s Ronin network to steal Ethereum and USDC stablecoins that were then worth over $600 million. In response to the massive theft, Axie developer Sky Mavis disabled token withdrawal — but apparently not before its CEO moved $3 million worth of Axie’s main token, AXS, into Binance. According to Bloomberg, company CEO and co-founder Trung Nguyen made the large transfer mere hours before Sky Mavis disclosed on March 29th that the “play to earn” game was hacked. 

It was YouTube user Asobs who first identified the transaction and who shared his documentation with Bloomberg. The news organization then worked with associate professors of mathematics at Winthrop University to confirm his findings. Asobs analyzed the transaction details and connected it to a wallet controlled by Nguyen based on previous transactions, such as the initial distribution of tokens for the game during its early years. 

When asked, company spokesperson Kalie Moore has confirmed the transaction to Bloomberg. Moore said Nguyen made the transfer to shore up the company’s finances and ensure it could provide liquidity to its users. Nguyen apparently had to do so on the down-low so that people tracking official Axie wallets wouldn’t be able to front-run the news and cash out before the rest of the players even find out what’s going on.

Moore said:

“At the time, we (Sky Mavis) understood that our position and options would be better the more AXS we had on Binance. This would give us the flexibility to pursue different options for securing the loans/capital require. The Founding Team chose to transfer it from this wallet to ensure that short-sellers, who track official Axie wallets, would not be able to front-run the news.”

Nguyen posted a Twitter thread after Bloomberg’s report went up and said that his team had been in contact with Binance after the hack was discovered to “ensure user funds would be restored as soon as possible.” The executive added: “This discussion included the fact that Sky Mavis would provide liquidity while we worked on a full backing of the bridge.” He also called speculations of insider trading as “baseless and false.”

In Axie Infinity, people can earn cryptocurrency by playing the game and completing tasks, such as winning Arena battles and breeding Axie monsters, which are non-fungible tokens. The attack on its Ronin network is now known as one of the biggest in crypto history. According to previous reporting by The Block, bad actors gained entry into its system by sending a spyware-filled PDF to one employee who thought he was getting a job offer with higher pay from another firm. Turns out the company didn’t exist, and the offer, according to the US government, came from North Korean hacker group Lazarus.

Sky Mavis has secured $150 million in funding to help reimburse users since then, and Nguyen said all players’ funds are now backed 1:1. The value of Ethereum dropped considerably since March, however, so players will not get the money they could’ve gotten if they had cashed out months ago. As for the game itself, it opened back up in late June with a new system to flag “large, suspicious withdrawals” and a new land-staking feature that enables players to earn passive income.

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Meta will no longer pay US publishers for news content

After Meta’s revenue shrank for the first time in its history, the company has reportedly told publishers it will no longer pay for content to run in Facebook’s News Tab, according to Axios. “Most people do not come to Facebook for news, and as a business it doesn’t make sense to over-invest in areas that don’t align with user preferences,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

Facebook spent around $105 million on such deals, paying $20 million to The New York Times, $10 million to The Wall Street Journal and $3 million to CNN, according to Axios. Facebook struck the deals back in 2019 as it boosted its investment in news and even hired journalists to direct traffic to the news tab. 

Facebook also promised to pay partner sites including The Guardian and The Economist for news in the UK when it launched the News Tab there late in 2020. Shortly after that, it signed a deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp to pay for content in Australia, after the Australian Parliament passed a law requiring Facebook and Google to do so. 

Along with Google, Facebook has taken criticism for drawing ad dollars away from dedicated news sites. That has contributed to the failure of a quarter of US news sites over the last 15 years, according to Poynter, with the professional journalism vacuum often been filled by false or misleading news on Facebook. 

Twitter raises the price of Blue subscriptions to $5 a month

Twitter’s $3 subscription now costs $5 a month. The social network has sent out an email notifying existing subscribers that Twitter Blue has raised its prices for new members, but as early adopters, the monthly amount they’re paying will remain the same until October. In the email posted by social media consultant Matt Navarra and first spotted by The Verge, the company said early adopters will also be notified at least 30 days before the new monthly price takes effect for their accounts. 

The company didn’t elaborate on the reason behind the price increase and only said in the email that it will help Twitter build new features subscribers have been asking for, improve upon the ones it already has and sustain its mission of supporting journalism. It also said that it’s currently creating a “more frictionless reading experience” and launching new experimental features in Twitter Blue Labs for those who choose to stick around even with the higher subscription price.

Twitter launched its subscription service in the US back in November, unlocking additional features for the website’s most dedicated users. Some of its features can be very useful, including the ability to Undo tweets, which is the closest thing to an “edit” button at the moment. It also allows members to browse news without ads and gives them access to the latest features the website is testing.

In its second quarter earnings report for 2022, Twitter said it has seen a sharp rise in the number of regular users on the website. The bad news was that it didn’t translate to more money for the company. It posted a net loss of $270 million, which it blamed on the economic downturn and the uncertainty surrounding Elon Musk’s takeover. If you’ll recall, Musk offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion back in April and the social network quickly accepted, but they’ve been at odds since then. In July, Twitter sued Elon Musk for attempting to back out of the acquisition, and now the two parties are going to face off in an expedited, five-day trial beginning in October.

Sony lowers forecast for PS5 gaming sales in 2022

At the end of its fiscal year in May, Sony was fairly bullish on gaming sales, predicting sales of 18 million PlayStation 5s for 2022 after selling 11.5 million in 2021. The company also expected a “significant” revenue increase in its gaming division over 2021 due to a boost across “all categories.”

In its latest earnings drop, however, the company has revised its profit forecast down by 16 percent from 305 billion yen ($2.3 billion) in May to 255 billion yen ($1.9 billion), “due to an expected decrease in sales of first party titles,” it wrote. The company also chalked up the drop in revenue to higher expenses due to its acquisition of Bungie Studios closing earlier than expected. 

Sony didn’t say anything about its PS5 console forecast, but it sold 2.4 million units this quarter compared to 2.3 million in the same quarter last year (21.7 million units to date). That means it must sell over 5 million units on average for the next three quarters to meet its May forecast — something it has never done before. In May, however, Sony said that it will finally be able to ramp up production to meet PS5 demand as supply chain issues ease — though as it stands now, the consoles are still in short supply. 

On the software side, things also went south as Sony sold just 47.1 million titles, including 6.4 million first party games, compared to 63.6 million titles and 10.5 million first-party games in the same quarter of 2021. On top of that, PlayStation Plus users dropped slightly from Q4 (47.3 million instead of 47.4 million), and monthly active users also dropped from 106 to 102 million. Sony introduced the new higher-priced PS Plus Extra and Premium tiers in June, but it has yet to reveal the impact of those — hopefully, we’ll learn more next quarter.

Looking ahead, Sony has a few major titles on the horizon that could perk up software sales, including God of War Ragnarokcoming November 9th, and The Last of Us Part I remake arriving on September 2nd. On the hardware side, the PSVR 2 has been revealed but isn’t expected to arrive until next year.  

The next quarter will be a lot more interesting for Sony’s gaming division, as PS5 sales will show if it’s been able to ramp up production. Game sales will also be notable, as the steep drop this quarter bodes ominously for the industry as a whole. 

Update 7/29/2022 10:34 AM ET: The post has been updated with information that Sony has sold 21.7 million PS5s to date, not 21.4 million.