Ronin Hard Fork to Ethereum L2 on May 12

Ronin, the blockchain network powering games like Axie Infinity and Pixels, will undergo a hard fork on May 12 to transition from an independent sidechain to an Ethereum Layer 2 built on the OP Stack, the framework used by networks such as Optimism and Base.

The upgrade, set to begin at block 55,577,490 around 15:16 UTC, will cause approximately 10 hours of scheduled downtime. During this period, all transactions, including transfers, swaps, smart contract interactions, and onchain game actions, will pause. Network officials urged users to complete pending activities beforehand and track progress via the block explorer.

The migration addresses security vulnerabilities exposed in a March 2022 bridge exploit, when attackers compromised five of nine validators and stole about 625 million in cryptocurrency, the largest such incident in decentralized finance history. Authorities attributed the attack to North Korea's Lazarus Group. Sky Mavis, Ronin's developer, raised 150 million from Binance to reimburse users, while U.S. officials and Chainalysis recovered 30 million and Norway returned 5.7 million in 2024.

Launched in 2021 by Sky Mavis to support Axie Infinity's high transaction...