"Open the bowl" 2024 with the $81.5 million hack of the Orbit Chain bridge

Orbit Chain's cross-chain bridge became the first victim of an attack in the new year 2024, with an estimated loss of about 81.5 million USD.

"Open the bowl" 2024 with the $81.5 million hack of the Orbit Chain bridge Photo: Orbit Chain

Orbit Bridge, a protocolcross-chain bridge, was drained of 81.5 million USD early this morning (January 1, 2024).

Attackers compromised $81.5 million in assets on Orbit Chain. Source: Arkham Intelligence

The incident was discovered by account Kgjr on X (Twitter) and shared by many other blockchain security units.< /span>

In five separate transactions, each sent to a different wallet address, the attacker transferred 50 million USD stablecoins (including30 million USDT, 10 million DAIand10 million USDC), 231 wBTC (10million USD) and9.500 ETH(21.5 million USD).

This bridging solution is closely linked to the ecosystemClaytn. On-chain datashows that 9 of the top 10 tokens on this network are wrapped assets of Orbit Bridge, meaning assets from another blockchain have been converted or transferred to Klaytn through Orbit. The exact motive of the attack is still unknown and Orbit Chain has not yet made an official statement.

Launched in Korea in 2018, Orbit Chain is a blockchain that focuses primarily on the function of transferring assets between decentralized networks.Orbit Bridgeis the preferred bridge for transferring assets between EVM and Klaytn compatible networks.

According to statistics, hacks, scams and security attacks in 2023 havecausing damage of up to 1.95 billion USDfor the cryptocurrency industry. The most targeted projects continue to be cross-chain bridges, which often hold large amounts of user assets.