Axie Infinity

Axie Infinity is a blockchain game developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis in 2018, known for its in-game economy which uses Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies. It has been called "a pyramid scheme that relies on cheap labor from countries like the Philippines to fuel its growth." Players collect and mint non-fungible tokens (NFTs) which represent axolotl-inspired digital pets known as Axies. These creatures can be bred and battled with each other within the game. Sky Mavis charges a 4.25% fee to players when they trade Axies on its marketplace. Axie Infinity is built on the Ronin Network, an Ethereum-linked sidechain developed by Sky Mavis. The game's official cryptocurrency is "Axie Infinity Shards/Token" or AXS for short. The game's secondary token, SLP, crashed in February 2022 amid a wider NFT and cryptocurrency crash, losing over 99% of its peak value. In March 2022, hackers compromised the Ronin Network, stealing approximately US$620 million worth of cryptocurrency from the project. The hackers were linked to Lazarus Group, funded by North Korea.