Orbit Bridge Plunges into Chaos with A Reported $82M Hack

Orbit Bridge, the cross-chain bridging service of the prominent Orbit Chain protocol, fell victim to a sophisticated hack just hours before the new year. The breach reportedly resulted in a staggering loss of $82 million, marking a significant blow to the cryptocurrency space. 

A total of five separate transactions were conducted, meticulously executed on fresh wallets. As per data from Arkham Intelligence, the hackers successfully siphoned $50 million in stablecoins, including 30 million Tether, 10 million DAI, and 10 million USDC. 

Additionally, 231 wrapped Bitcoins (wBTC) valued at approximately $10 million and 9,500 Ethereum, totaling around $21.5 million, were illicitly transferred through the compromised bridge. 

Orbit Bridge's intimate ties to the Klaytn ecosystem add another layer of complexity to the situation. Klaytn's explorer reveals that nine out of the top ten tokens on the network, based on the circulating market cap, are wrapped assets from Orbit Bridge. As a result, the breach has a greater impact on the broader blockchain community.

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Community Reacts to the Exploit: Insights from Cybersecurity Experts

On December 31, pseudonymous Twitter user Kgjr brought attention to the potential exploit, highlighting substantial outflows from the Orbit Chain Bridge protocol. 

Corroborating this information, blockchain sleuth Officer CIA and cybersecurity firm Cyvers posted similar findings. 

Preliminary external investigations by cybersecurity firm SlowMist suggest a potential vulnerability in the Orbit Chain bridge or a compromise of the centralized server. A comprehensive inquiry is underway to unearth further details about the attack.

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Orbit Chain Responds and Collaborates with Law Enforcement

In response to the breach, Orbit Chain took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to confirm the hack, attributing it to an "unidentified access" to the bridge. 

According to the company, it is actively collaborating with law enforcement agencies to identify the perpetrators and conducting an in-depth analysis to understand the root cause of the attack. In a cautionary move, Orbit Chain has also warned the community about circulating fake reimbursement claims on X.

Launched in 2018 in South Korea, Orbit Chain stands as a multi-asset blockchain with a primary focus on facilitating cross-chain transfers between various decentralized networks. 

In particular, the protocol is well known for its ability to transfer assets between EVM-compatible networks and Klaytn.