NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - The popular play-to-earn Axie Infinity game had been losing users even before the record cryptocurrency hack disclosed last week restricted the ability of players to move digital money out of the virtual world.
The number of daily active users has fallen 45 per cent to 1.48 million from a peak in November, according to data compiled by Axie Infinity owner Sky Mavis. The latest tally is for the week ended March 28, or a day before the roughly US$600 million (S$816 million) hack was discovered. Current figures were not immediately available.
The decrease has been particularly noteworthy since December, when updates to the game were announced, and on March 23, when hackers stole the Ether and USD Coin cryptocurrencies from Axie's Ronin bridge, a sidechain built to facilitate faster and cheaper transactions for the game.
Sky Mavis, the developer behind Axie Infinity and Ronin, has said that it is committed to reimbursing players as soon as possible.
The developer has raised US$150 million to help stem an exodus of players after they were unable to access gaming proceeds. The money will be used to partially reimburse participants and enhance security measures.
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange and one of the primary trading platforms for the digital tokens used in conjunction with the game, led the funding round, the companies said in a statement Wednesday.
Other participating investors include the gaming and blockchain company Animoca Brands, the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Dialectic and Paradigm.
The funding raised is only a third of the capital lost during the hack.
"Sky Mavis is committed to reimbursing all of our users' lost funds and implementing rigorous internal security measures to prevent future attacks," Mr Trung Nguyen, chief executive of Sky Mavis said in a e-mailed statement.
Meanwhile on Monday, the hacker started to hide their tracks by moving around 1,400 Ether to Tornado Cash, a crypto asset mixing service, Coindesk reported.
A broad market sell-off in December led to more downward pressure on the prices on smooth-love potion (SLP), the native currency of Axie, according to Mr Martin Lee, a data journalist at blockchain analytics firm Nansen.
"Daily earnings dropped and so did interest in the game. Those that bought-in at the highs started to feel fearful and naturally doubt creeped in," Mr Lee wrote in an e-mail. Mr Lee adds that players are awaiting the game's Origin patch that looks to revitalise, improve and increase the depth of game play.
The concern is that if the developer is not able to give a clear timeline on reimbursements, than players will lose trust on the platform and move to other similar games, further accelerating the decline in users and activity.
Vietnam-based Sky Mavis is backed by investors which include Andreessen Horowitz and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
