Ronin, the gaming-focused blockchain once synonymous with the industry’s infamous $625 million exploit, is officially shedding its sidechain skin on May 12 to become an Ethereum layer 2 to improve security while maintaining throughput.
Ronin, which announced the migration in April, will perform a hard fork at block 55,577,490, a process that will result in about 10 hours of downtime for users, the network said Monday on X. According to onchain data, the migration is expected to begin around 3:16 PM UTC on Tuesday.
“We launched Ronin four years ago because Axie Infinity needed a faster and more efficient network,” Ronin said when announcing the migration. “It worked. Axie Infinity introduced millions of gamers to crypto, and Pixels proved it was possible to do it again.” The time has come to ‘reconnect to the mother ship’.
While operating as an independent sidechain in mid-May 2022, Ronin suffered what remains the largest DeFI bridge exploit in history. Layer 2 protocols benefit from tighter links to the underlying blockchain than sidechains, and offer benefits such as greater security.
The network’s native token, $RONcurrently trading at about 11 cents with a market cap of about $89.5 million, according to data from CoinDesk. While the token remains significantly below its 2024 peak, the migration sparked a rally, with prices rising 30% over the past 30 days as investors noticed a shift in the network’s supply dynamics.
“During this downtime period, all network transactions are carried out [including transfers, swaps, and smart contract interactions] will be paused,” Ronin said, adding that all games using its network will also be affected. “To avoid any inconvenience, please perform all necessary transactions/onchain gaming actions on the Ronin network before the downtime begins.”
During the downtime, a ‘Proof of Distribution’ model will be introduced to reward builders based on active network contribution rather than passive deployment, Ronin said. The team noted that “this is fundamentally bullish $RON because it dramatically reduces token inflation from more than 20% to less than 1%.”
The company also said that the move to the OP Stack will allow it to inherit Ethereum’s robust security while maintaining high throughput. This step will divert 90 million $RON tokens previously earmarked for reward staking in the Ronin Treasury, while market fees were more than doubled from 0.5% to 1.25%.
Ronin said the story is dominated by the crucial return to Ethereum, a strategic move to reset the economy, secure the bridge infrastructure and secure the future in an upgrade intended to improve scalability and reduce costs through the use of EigenDA for data availability.