$5.8M retrieved from Axie Infinity hack

This is the largest amount of cryptocurrency ever seized by the Norwegian police and one of the largest seizures of money ever made in Norway, according to a statement by the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime.

“This case shows that we are also good at following the money on the blockchain, even though criminals use advanced techniques to avoid detection,” Senior Public Prosecutor Marianne Bender said.

In March last year 173,600 Ethereum and 25.5 million USD Coin was stolen from Axie Infinity, a game developed by Vietnamese company Sky Mavis. At the time the stolen amount was valued at $615 million. Since then Ethereum has dropped by half in value.

Around 750 Norwegians had money in Axie Infinity when the game was hacked.

Norwegian police and its international partners have been monitoring the money laundering process around the clock and they have been able to trace a lot of the money and hamper the laundering process by the hackers.

The launderers are now in the process of converting the cryptocurrency into money that can be used in the real world, and investigators will continue to monitor their progress.

The police will work with Sky Mavis to ensure that the money is returned to the victims.

In September last year the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said it had retrieved around $30 million stolen from the hack.

Sky Mavis, co-founded by Vietnamese citizen Nguyen Thanh Trung, has promised that it will refund players the stolen money even though it could take years.