Norwegian Authorities Seize Crypto Worth $6M From Axie Infinity Heist With FBI's Help

Norwegian authorities, in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), have allegedly seized about $6 million that was stolen in last year's Axie Infinity heist. “It is the biggest crypto seizure Norwegian police have ever made,” said Norway's Økokrim.

Timeline of Axie-infinity

After spending a considerable portion of 2022 in the doldrums, a number of tokens in the metaverse sector have seen considerable gains over the last several weeks, with 18 of the top 20 tokens in the sector seeing gains of up +319%, over the last 30 days.

On 2 February, Axie Infinity's [AXS] engine, the Ronin network, confirmed that users of the Play-to-Earn project could access loans directly in their wallet. According to the announcement, the feature was made available after the network's collaboration with MetaLend.

Despite operating losses in 2022 for the Reality Labs business, Meta Inc (NASDAQ: META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg reassured that the company is sticking to its long-term goals for Metaverse, leading to a surge in the prices of associated tokens. What Happened In the last 24 hours, Decentraland (CRYPTO: MANA) rose by 6.40% trading at $0.80.

A crypto gaming altcoin is following Axie Infinity (AXS) on a parabolic surge of its own, more than doubling in value this month. Ronin (RON), the Ethereum (ETH)-linked sidechain designed specifically for the Axie Infinity ecosystem, soared in price this month from $0.26 at the start of the year to $0.

Though Axie Infinity Shards (AXS), the cryptocurrency that powers one of web3's leading play-to-earn crypto games Axie Infinity, has now pulled back by close to 20% from the highs it hit above $14 per token just a few days ago, the cryptocurrency is still up around 90% this month.

The Axie Infinity price prediction may never be as bullish as it has been in recent years after the platform's recent problems. Investors have lost confidence in the project, and the game is attracting fewer and fewer players by the month.

Axie Infinity [AXS] noted gains of 138% from the swing low to the swing high of January until press time. The token's performance meant that sentiment in the bulls' camp was euphoric.

An Ethereum (ETH)-based gaming altcoin surged this weekend ahead of a large token unlocking event, defying conventional trading wisdom. Axie Infinity (AXS) rallied from trading around $9.20 on Saturday to a high of $13.84 on Sunday, a more than 50% increase.

Axie Infinity price is at the helm of its recovery after exploding another 29% in 24 hours to trade at $12.86 at the time of writing. The NFT and gaming token extended the current green candle's wick to $14.00, a price level that was seen last in September. It is plausible that the uptrend is just beginning and taking advantage of the push from the Chinese New Year.

After recording $4.26 billion in total non-fungible token (NFT) sales, the play-to-earn game Axie Infinity's monthly player count has dropped to levels not seen since November 2020, a period of 26 months. Despite the low player count, the project's native token, AXS, has climbed 62% higher against the U.S. dollar in the last 30 days.