Jihoz (born Nguyen Thanh Trung) is a Vietnamese co-founder of Sky Mavis, the studio behind Axie Infinity — the blockchain-based NFT game that became the defining project of the 2021 GameFi (gaming + DeFi) boom. Axie Infinity reached peak daily active users of over 2.7 million in late 2021, generating more than $1.3 billion in NFT trading volume in a single month, with a community-driven “scholarship” system allowing low-income players — particularly in the Philippines and Vietnam — to earn income by borrowing NFT characters (Axies) and battling them. Jihoz led growth and ecosystem development at Sky Mavis, while co-founder Aleksander Larsen handled operations and co-founder Trung (Jihoz himself) drove community expansion. Sky Mavis also developed the Ronin Network — an Ethereum sidechain purpose-built for Axie Infinity — which suffered a $625 million bridge hack in March 2022, the largest DeFi hack in history at the time.
Background
- Full Name: Nguyen Thanh Trung (known publicly as “Jihoz”)
- Nationality: Vietnamese
- Education: Unknown; tech and gaming background
- Role at Sky Mavis: Co-founder; initially Growth Lead, later Head of Ecosystem
Key Contributions
Axie Infinity Scholarship System:
- Jihoz is widely credited with architecting the scholarship system — where Axie holders (scholars) would lend their NFT characters to players who couldn’t afford the upfront cost (which peaked at ~$1,000–1,500 per team of 3 Axies), splitting earnings in SLP (Smooth Love Potion) — the in-game reward token
- The scholarship model created a global distribution network — guild organizations like Yield Guild Games (YGG) managed thousands of scholars in the Philippines
- This system drove Axie to peak adoption in 2021 and positioned it as a real income source for players in developing countries
Ronin Network:
- Axie Infinity migrated from Ethereum mainnet to the Ronin sidechain (developed by Sky Mavis) in 2021 to reduce gas costs
- Jihoz was a co-architect of this ecosystem, which enabled near-instant and free-to-cheap transactions for Axie gameplay
- Ronin later became a gaming-focused blockchain hosting multiple third-party games beyond Axie
Sky Mavis Ecosystem:
- Co-built the Sky Mavis studio vision — positioning it as a broader gaming company beyond Axie Infinity, developing new titles and expanding Ronin as a multi-game chain
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Sky Mavis founded; Axie Infinity first playable version launches |
| 2019–2020 | Early traction; AXS token pre-sale; Ethereum-based gameplay |
| 2021 (Jan–Jul) | Explosive adoption — SLP token demand surges; scholarship system grows |
| 2021 (Aug) | Peak adoption: 2.7M DAU; $1.3B monthly NFT volume; AXS hits $160 |
| 2022 (Mar) | Ronin bridge hacked for $625M — largest DeFi hack at the time |
| 2022 (Apr–Dec) | SLP collapses 99%+ from peak; scholarship model collapses; user exodus |
| 2023–2024 | Axie Infinity: Origins (new free-to-play mode); Ronin expands as multi-game chain |
Common Misconceptions
“Axie Infinity died after the hack.”
Sky Mavis repaid user losses from the Ronin hack through a combination of $150M in venture funding (led by Binance) and company reserves. Axie Infinity continued operating. Game user counts stabilized at a much lower level, and Sky Mavis rebuilt Ronin into a broader gaming chain hosting new titles.
“Jihoz created the scholarship system to exploit poor players.”
The scholarship system emerged organically from the community and Axie economics, and Jihoz recognized and promoted it as a growth mechanism. Critics noted it created economic dependency — but Sky Mavis did not design it to exploit players. The core problem was tokenomics: SLP was not deflationary and eventually collapsed under inflationary sell pressure from millions of scholars.
Criticisms
- Ronin security: At the time of the $625M hack, the Ronin bridge was secured by only 9 validators — 5 of which were controlled by Sky Mavis — making it trivially easy for a sophisticated attacker (North Korea’s Lazarus Group, per attribution) to compromise the bridge
- SLP tokenomics: SLP had no effective burn mechanism for the volume being minted through gameplay — the sell pressure from millions of scholars was structurally unsustainable
- Scholar exploitation concerns: Some scholars in the Philippines reported their managers taking 50–70% of SLP earnings, leaving scholarship holders with minimal income while managers accumulated wealth — creating economic structures that critics compared to digital sharecropping
- Centralization of Ronin: The early Ronin validator set was highly centralized, contradicting blockchain decentralization principles for a major financial application
Social Media Sentiment
Jihoz remains active on Twitter/X as a Ronin and Sky Mavis ecosystem advocate. He is viewed by early Axie supporters as a visionary who genuinely cared about growing the play-to-earn model and supporting the scholarship community. Post-hack and post-SLP-collapse sentiment is more mixed — with many former scholars expressing disappointment, but the broader industry crediting Axie with proving that gaming NFT economies could achieve real-world scale.
Last updated: 2026-04
Related Terms
- Axie Infinity
- Ronin Network
- Aleksander Larsen
- Play-to-Earn
- SLP (Smooth Love Potion)
- Yield Guild Games
Sources
- “Axie Infinity: The Play-to-Earn Revolution” — Sky Mavis / Axie Infinity documentation (2021). Primary documentation on Axie Infinity’s game design, scholarship model, and the SLP/AXS dual-token economy.
- “The Yield Guild Games Thesis” — Yield Guild Games Medium (2021). Analysis of the Axie scholarship economy from the perspective of the largest Axie scholarship provider.
- “Ronin Network Hack: $625M Loss Explained” — Chainalysis (2022). Post-mortem analysis of the Ronin bridge exploit attributing the attack to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
- “The Rise and Fall of Axie Infinity” — Rest of World (2022). Investigative journalism on how the play-to-earn model affected Filipino scholars — covering peak income, post-collapse impact, and the human stories behind the scholarship economy.
- “Sky Mavis and the Rebuilding of Ronin” — The Block (2023). Coverage of Sky Mavis’s post-hack recovery strategy — repaying users, expanding Ronin as a multi-game blockchain, and onboarding new game studios to the chain.