Ronin to join OP Stack Layer 2; RON inflation falls under 1%

Sky Mavis will migrate Ronin from an independent Ethereum sidechain to an OP Stack-based Layer 2 on May 12. The company expects roughly 10 hours of scheduled downtime during which transfers, token swaps, smart contract interactions and on-chain gameplay for Axie Infinity and Pixels will be paused.

Sky Mavis announced the upgrade will be executed via a hard fork and directed users to Ronin’s block explorer to track the exact start time and block height. The network urged users to prepare for the outage.

The transition replaces Ronin’s independent sidechain model, used since 2021, with an Ethereum Layer 2 built on the OP Stack, the same framework used by other Layer 2 networks. Sky Mavis said the change includes a major tokenomics revision.

Sky Mavis confirmed the annual inflation rate for RON will fall from above 20% to below 1%, reducing the annual issuance of new RON tokens.

Ronin launched in 2021 as an EVM-compatible sidechain designed for fast, low-fee transactions for in-game assets and play-to-earn mechanics. The network has processed billions of dollars in NFT trading since its launch.

The migration follows a large security breach in March 2022, when attackers exploited the Ronin bridge and used compromised validator keys to withdraw roughly $625 million in ETH and USDC. Authorities and blockchain forensics later recovered about $30 million, and Norwegian authorities returned roughly $5.7 million in 2024. Sky Mavis raised $150 million from Binance at the time to reimburse affected users and replace compromised validators.

A market analysis published in April 2026 estimated that about 93% of Web3 gaming and GameFi projects launched since 2020 are effectively defunct, defined by token prices falling more than 90% from peak and near-zero daily active users. The analysis estimated total capital deployed into the sector from 2020 through early 2026 at $12 billion to $15 billion, with gaming token prices down about 95% from 2022 highs and venture funding for blockchain gaming studios down roughly 93% over the period. Axie Infinity’s daily active users have declined more than 90% from peak.

Sky Mavis has published migration details on its official channels and a network security account and has urged users to follow the block explorer for timing updates. After the hard fork, Ronin will operate on an OP Stack-based Layer 2 architecture.