Ronin Network, the Ethereum-based sidechain created by Axie Infinity developers, has announced that it will reopen its bridge to aid users with the ease of moving their assets across the Ethereum network.
Ronin Network Reopens Bridge
In a tweet thread, Ronin’s developers noted that the reopening of the bridge, which will occur on June 28th, will pave the way for users to access their funds once again since the closure of the bridge.
The resumption of activities on the Ronin bridge, however, is dependent on the network validators updating their software/node. The developers went further to share details on how the validators can go about the upgrade. The developers noted that the upgrade will result in a hard fork for the network.
Non-validating nodes were equally provided with the steps involved in upgrading their software. A provision was also made for users who wish to start up a new non-validating node. A link to an up-to-date version of the network snapshot was also made available, making it possible for new nodes to join the bandwagon.
Why Was the Bridge Closed?
The Ronin bridge was halted following a three-month-old exploit on the network which resulted in the loss of $625 million worth of assets to hackers.
The hack, which was discovered only six days after it happened, led to a downtrend in the prices of the native tokens of the Ronin network, RON. Since then, the token has been on a continuous decline, partly due to the current bearish crypto market.
However, with the latest announcement, the native token has seen a slight 13% increase from its price some hours prior. At the time of writing, RON is trading at $0.33.
Efforts to Catch the Actors and Recover Stolen Funds
While the company noted that it will investigate the theft and hopefully get the group responsible for the hack, no official comment has been made as to the success of the hunt.
Two weeks after the discovery of the hack, a report revealed that the U.S. Treasury Department had connected the theft to the infamous North Korean hacking group, Lazarus. The department noted that the ETH public address connected to the hack was the same address belonging to Lazarus.
Meanwhile, Coinfomania reported in April that Binance recovered about $6 million from the stolen fund after the hackers had deposited the amount to the exchange using 86 different accounts.
Ronin Bridge Finally Reopens
The Ronin team finally reopened the bridge on Tuesday, June 28, enabling users to send their funds between the Ronin network and the Ethereum blockchain.
The team noted that all user funds have been made compatible with the new bridge. It was also outlined that the new bridge features a “circuit-breaker system” which is geared toward stopping transfers of large suspicious funds, and by extension, hopefully, protecting the bridge against future theft.
Update: This article has been updated to include information that the Ronin Bridge has been reopened. An earlier version of this report only pointed to a future reopening date.
