More than $80 million stolen due to Orbit Chain abuse, assets ‘unchanged’

Orbit Chain, a cross-chain bridge project, suffered a “cyberattack” on Monday, resulting in more than $80 million lost on the bridge.

The project said it identified approximately $84.5 million held in multiple wallet addresses belonging to the attackers after an “unconfirmed access” occurred on Orbit Bridge. The stolen funds were spread across five addresses and held a total of 26,741.6 ETH (worth approximately $64.5 million at current prices), worth less than $20 million. stablecoin DAI was held at three other addresses.

Orbit Chain said on Twitter that the stolen funds were “not moving” and that its team was “continuously monitoring” the assets and was in “close contact” with law enforcement and working to communicate with the attackers. He added that there is.

Orbitchain added, “We will mobilize all available means to recover funds,” and added, “We have developed an investigation support and cause analysis system together with the National Police Agency and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA).”

The company has also asked cryptocurrency exchanges to freeze stolen assets and is specifically working with blockchain security company Theori to help it “track funds in real time.” Security firm ChainLight reported that it was conducting a “comprehensive analysis” of the attack at Orbit Chain’s request.

Orbit Chain has not yet published a full explanation of how the exploit occurred. decryption We’ve reached out to Orbit Chain, Theori, and ChainLight for comment and will update this article if we hear back.

In response to a tweet speculating that North Korean hackers could be behind the attack, Orbit Chain noted that the possibility had “occurred” to its team as well. North Korea has been accused of stealing $3.4 billion worth of cryptocurrency in a series of hacks over the years, including the largest cryptocurrency hack of 2023.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren claimed North Korea used stolen cryptocurrencies “to pay for about half of its nuclear weapons program” and said she would amend the Bank Secrecy Act to account for the “threat” posed by cryptocurrencies. urged that.

According to Orbit Chain, the initial ETH used in the attack came through Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixer. Coin Mixer was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for its alleged role in laundering “more than $7 billion” worth of cryptocurrency, including funds stolen by the state-sponsored North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group.

Source: Decrypt.co