Cybercriminals exploited Orbit Bridge, the connectivity service of cross-chain protocol Orbit Chain, to steal $82 million worth of cryptocurrency just hours before the start of the new year.
In an official The team said it was “actively interacting with international law enforcement” without providing further information.
Cybercriminals are busy on New Year’s Day too
According to official confirmation, the attackers breached the protocol on “December 31, 2023 8:52:47 PM +UTC.” Developers are currently working with foreign law enforcement agencies to determine the primary cause of the incident.
Blockchain security firm PeckShield Inc. conducted a preliminary investigation and found $81.5 million in losses in stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies across five different transactions.
Source: PeckShield
Recently, on X (formerly Twitter), cryptocurrency influencers and blockchain security experts, including @officer_cia, confirmed the attack through tweets.
SlowMist has concluded its initial external investigation and found evidence of a potential security breach in the Orbit Chain bridge or compromised central server. The company is conducting a more thorough investigation to learn more about the hack.
Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analysis tool, reported that five separate transactions using the cryptocurrency took $81.68 million from the system.
Total crypto market cap at $1.61 trillion on the daily chart: TradingView.com
In 2018, Orbit Chain, which facilitates cross-chain transactions between various decentralized protocols, was introduced in Korea. The protocol transfers assets between EVM-compatible networks and the modular layer 1 blockchain Klaytn and is tightly connected to the latter.
Klaytn is committed to providing immediate updates and is in regular communication with Ozys to assess the situation. Orbit is known as Klaytn’s largest bridge provider.
The Klaytn Foundation was not affected by the Orbit Bridge hack. We are currently contacting Ozys to assess the situation and will provide an update as soon as possible.
— Klaytn (@klaytn_official) January 1, 2024
After a number of high-profile leaks in the Orbit Chain Bridge protocol, anonymous X (formerly Twitter) user Kgjr discovered a possible protocol vulnerability from cybercriminals. On Twitter, many other blockchain analysts shared the same findings.
It appears that the orbital bridges are now being depleted. Other new wallets for wbtc usdt usdc and dai, orbit bridge scanner shows test tx but larger wallets don’t. The wallet is below. pic.twitter.com/zlUbT0HrO2
— Kgjr (Clueless333) (@KGJRTG) December 31, 2023
Big losses in 2023
This incident adds millions of dollars to the overall financial losses suffered by cybercriminals in 2023. SlowMist, a popular Web3 security company, reported that a total of 462 hacks resulted in more than $2.4 billion in breaches during the year.
The Orbit team has reassured protocol users that it is actively contacting law enforcement to request assistance and that a root cause investigation is ongoing.
Orbit Chain also unveiled its user compensation plan. To receive a refund, users had to go through a verification process to determine eligibility.
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