Axie Infinity DEVELOPED_BY Sky Mavis
Geoff White says Axie Infinity was created by Sky Mavis.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“Axie Infinity was created by a company called Sky Mavis”
Episode
02 July 2024 Official episode · Official transcript
cybercrime advanced persistent threat social engineering policy/law
The episode examines the Axie Infinity Ronin Bridge theft, alleged North Korean involvement, Tornado Cash, cryptocurrency privacy, sanctions, and the legal status of decentralized financial software.
Topics: Cryptocurrency theft and blockchain transaction tracing, Ethereum smart contracts, Cross-chain bridges and validator security, Ronin Bridge majority-control attack, Social engineering through fraudulent job recruitment, Non-custodial cryptocurrency mixers, Tornado Cash and financial privacy, Decentralized autonomous organizations, Cryptocurrency sanctions and money laundering, Know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering requirements, Open-source code, free speech, and software liability, Bitcoin coinjoin privacy systems
Links published on the Darknet Diaries episode page. Not LLM output.
Qualified statements from this episode, not graph facts.
Axie Infinity DEVELOPED_BY Sky Mavis
Geoff White says Axie Infinity was created by Sky Mavis.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“Axie Infinity was created by a company called Sky Mavis”
Axie Infinity USES Ethereum
Axie Infinity is built around ETH and the Ethereum blockchain, with players transferring Ethereum into the game.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“the whole game is based on cryptocurrency”
“you can swap your dollars into ETH, the currency on the Ethereum blockchain”
Axie Infinity USES smart contracts
Jack says Axie Infinity was built directly on Ethereum and utilized smart contracts.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 147 Details
“Axie Infinity was built directly on the Ethereum cryptocurrency, utilizing smart contracts”
Ronin network PART_OF Ethereum
Sky Mavis created Ronin as a sidechain of Ethereum.
Explicit Direction flagged Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 147 Details
“created a sidechain of Ethereum called the Ronin network”
Ronin network DEVELOPED_BY Sky Mavis
Sky Mavis created the Ronin network to address Ethereum's speed and fee limitations for Axie Infinity.
Explicit Direction flagged Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 147 Details
“Sky Mavis, the creators of Axie Infinity, created a sidechain of Ethereum called the Ronin network”
Ronin Bridge PART_OF Ronin network
The Ronin Bridge is the mechanism for moving money between the Ronin network and Ethereum.
Derived Direction flagged Confidence 95% · Jack Rhysider EP 147 Details
“That mechanism of moving money between the two, they named that the Ronin Bridge”
Axie Infinity TARGETS Sky Mavis
The hackers targeted an engineering employee of Sky Mavis and gained deep-level access to its systems.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“the hackers targeted one of the engineering team”
“the malware allowed the hackers access to Sky Mavis’ computer systems”
Axie Infinity INITIAL_ACCESS_VIA social engineering
The reported initial compromise involved an elaborate social-engineering job offer aimed at a Sky Mavis engineer.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“carried out a very, very elaborate — or at least in my opinion, very elaborate social engineering exercise on this person; offered them a job”
Axie Infinity COMPROMISES Ronin Bridge
The hackers obtained control of enough Ronin validators to control the Ronin Bridge and transfer funds.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“If they can control the Ronin Bridge, they can effectively control the flow of money”
“We control the bridge, we control the money, and it’s time to steal”
Axie Infinity INVOLVES Ethereum
The theft transferred ETH and USDC from the Ronin Bridge into Ethereum wallets.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“They stole ETH, ETH currency, and USDC, which at the time was valued at $625 million”
Axie Infinity ATTRIBUTED_TO North Korea
The Axie Infinity hack was attributed to North Korea, but Geoff explicitly presents this as an allegation and North Korea denies involvement.
Uncertain Confidence 93% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“very quickly, the name that pops into the frame is North Korea”
“these are allegations. North Korea denies these allegations”
Tornado Cash INVOLVES Tornado Cash
The Tornado Cash sanctions incident concerns the US government's sanctions against the Tornado Cash mixer.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“they put Tornado Cash under sanctions”
Tornado Cash INVOLVES United States Department of the Treasury
The US Department of the Treasury sanctioned Tornado Cash and was sued over that decision.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“the crypto-campaigners sued the United States Treasury”
“This decision to sanction Tornado Cash”
Office of Foreign Assets Control PART_OF United States Department of the Treasury
Jack identifies OFAC as the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 147 Details
“the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which is OFAC”
Tornado Cash USES Ethereum
Tornado Cash operates as a mixer on Ethereum and interacts directly with the Ethereum blockchain.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 147 Details
“a way to have private transactions on Ethereum”
“get my wallet to interact with it directly, giving it my money”
Tornado Cash USES smart contracts
Tornado Cash uses smart-contract code to pool funds and allow withdrawals to fresh wallets without the creators controlling the funds.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 147 Details
“I was telling you about smart contracts before, where you can add code to the Ethereum blockchain”
“The smart contract is programmed to handle the money”
Tornado Cash DEVELOPED_BY Andre Pertsev
Geoff says Andre Pertsev was one of the apparent creators of Tornado Cash, while noting that legal proceedings require caution.
Uncertain Confidence 94% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“three people, it seems, created it. They are Andre Pertsev, Roman Storm, and Roman Semenov”
Tornado Cash DEVELOPED_BY Roman Storm
Geoff says Roman Storm was one of the apparent creators of Tornado Cash, while noting that legal proceedings require caution.
Uncertain Confidence 94% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“three people, it seems, created it. They are Andre Pertsev, Roman Storm, and Roman Semenov”
Tornado Cash DEVELOPED_BY Roman Semenov
Geoff says Roman Semenov was one of the apparent creators of Tornado Cash, while noting that legal proceedings require caution.
Uncertain Confidence 94% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“three people, it seems, created it. They are Andre Pertsev, Roman Storm, and Roman Semenov”
Andre Pertsev MEMBER_OF PepperSec
Geoff says Andre Pertsev worked for PepperSec.
Explicit Confidence 92% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“They worked for a company called PepperSec”
Roman Storm MEMBER_OF PepperSec
Geoff says Roman Storm worked for PepperSec.
Explicit Confidence 92% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“They worked for a company called PepperSec”
Roman Semenov MEMBER_OF PepperSec
Geoff says Roman Semenov worked for PepperSec.
Explicit Confidence 92% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“They worked for a company called PepperSec”
Tornado Cash ASSOCIATED_WITH DAO
Tornado Cash is described as operating as a decentralized autonomous organization after its apparent creators stepped back.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“It’s running on its own, the Tornado Cash DAO”
“Tornado Cash was one of these DAOs”
Tornado Cash ASSOCIATED_WITH North Korea
The US government claimed or believed that Tornado Cash was working for North Korea; this was presented as an allegation rather than an established fact.
Uncertain Confidence 90% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“this mixer, this Tornado Cash mixer, is working for the North Koreans, we believe, we claim”
Vitalik Buterin USES Tornado Cash
Geoff says Vitalik Buterin used a mixer to donate to Ukraine privately, referring to Tornado Cash in context.
Explicit Confidence 93% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“He said, look, this is exactly what I did. I wanted to donate to Ukraine. I didn’t want to do it publicly, and that is the hazard of using crypto, is it is public, so I used a mixer”
Jack Rhysider USES Tornado Cash
Jack says he used Tornado Cash to move funds from a public donation wallet into a personal wallet for privacy.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 147 Details
“I’ve used Tornado Cash before”
“I need a way to move this money into a personal wallet”
Axie Infinity USES Tornado Cash
The thieves who stole funds from Axie Infinity sent hundreds of millions of dollars through Tornado Cash to launder or obscure its origin.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 147 Details
“The people who stole the $600 million from Axie Infinity also noticed Tornado Cash and sent hundreds of millions of dollars to it”
Tornado Cash INVOLVES Andre Pertsev
Andre Pertsev was arrested in the Netherlands and accused of running Tornado Cash in connection with the sanctions and legal proceedings.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“a guy called Andre Pertzev was arrested in Holland and accused by the Dutch government of running Tornado Cash”
Tornado Cash INVOLVES Roman Storm
Roman Storm was charged by the US government and was being tried in connection with Tornado Cash.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“the US government charged Roman Storm who’s in the US and is, I think, currently being tried”
Tornado Cash INVOLVES Roman Semenov
Roman Semenov was indicted by the US government and was believed to be in Russia without having faced trial.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Geoff White EP 147 Details
“Roman Semenov is also indicted by the US government. He’s believed to be in the Russian Federation, so he hasn’t faced trial”
Works mentioned in the transcript. Distinct from show-note sources.
Model gpt-5.6-luna · prompt 1.5.19 · schema 1.5.19 · 2026-09-13T08:24:45.051815+00:00