Quick take:
- Axie Infinity CEO has denied claims he acted on information that was not available to other investors.
- It has emerged that Trung Nguyen moved $3 million worth of Axie’s native token AXS before informing investors of the $625 million hack.
- But the Sky Mavis CEO has fired back calling the allegations “baseless and false”.
Axie Infinity CEO Trung Nguyen has rubbished claims he acted on insider information. It has emerged that the Sky Mavis chief moved $3 million worth of Axie Infinity’s native token AXS to a Binance wallet before informing investors.
However, in a series of tweets, Nguyen has fired back calling allegations linking him to insider trading “baseless and false”.
Sky Mavis’ Ronin bridge, which allows Axie Infinity players to connect their ETH wallets to the game was exploited in March, with the hacker stealing $625 million worth of ETH and USDC.
The $AXS token plummeted more than 80% over the 3-month period that followed before establishing strong support around $12.80. The token traded at highs of about $70 before the news about the hack broke.
The company raised $150 million in a round led by Binance in April to help compensate the victims of the hack. And last month, on June 28, Sky Mavis lived up to its promise, compensating the victims, whilst also reopening the Ronin bridge.
The company has since increased the number of security keys for transaction authorisation to 11 from 9, as part of a measure taken to beef up its security protocols.
Binance folded its plans to be the lead investor in Sky Mavis’ fundraising to return money to Ronin bridge.
And now, Bloomberg has reported that the CEO of the giant blockchain company may have acted on the hack before informing the community. Although the $3 million transfer can be viewed publicly, it is impossible to pinpoint the person controlling it, the report notes.
Kalie Moore, a spokesperson for Sky Mavis told Bloomberg that the transfer was made to cushion the company against adverse company amid the crisis.
“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 required,” said Moore.
Apparently, the Foundation Team was trying to prevent short-sellers that keep a close eye on the official Axie wallets from pouncing on the news.
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