Cross-chain Orbit Bridge Hit by $82M New Year Hack

It appears that a $81.7 million breach of the bridging service of Orbit Chain was the first of the year's cyberattacks.

Reportedly, just three hours before the new year's festivities, Orbit Bridge, the bridging service of the cross-chain protocol Orbit Chain, was compromised for $82 million.

Pseudonymous Twitter user Kgjr alerted readers to the potential vulnerability in a December 31 post to X (formerly Twitter), wherein he identified a sequence of substantial outflows emanating from the Orbit Chain Bridge protocol. Cyvers, a blockchain security firm, and Onchain Sleuth Officer CIA have published comparable information.

Looks like orbit bridge is getting drained right now, different fresh wallets for wbtc usdt usdc and dai, test tx's showup on orbit bridge scanner but bigger ones doesnt. Wallets bellow pic.twitter.com/zlUbT0HrO2

— Kgjr (clueless333) (@KGJRTG) December 31, 2023

Based on information provided by Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analytics platform, it can be concluded that the hackers successfully acquired $81.68 million in illicit funds.

$30,000,000,000 in Tether USDT was exchanged in five distinct transactions. $30 million in Tether $1.00, $10 million in USD Coin $1.00, $21.7 million in Ether  $2,298, $9.8 million in Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and $10 million worth of the algorithmic stablecoin DAI All funds were relocated to new wallets.

Strong connections exist between the Orbit Chain protocol and the Klaytn network (KLAY), a modular layer-1 blockchain. Eight of the greatest assets on the Klaytn network by total market capitalization are wrapped assets on the Orbit Bridge, according to data from the block explorer.

The nature of the exploit in question is unknown. Orbit Chain and Klaytn were contacted for comment but did not provide an immediate response.

Orbit Chain, a multi-asset blockchain introduced in South Korea in 2018, is primarily concerned with facilitating cross-chain transfers between decentralized networks. Its typical application is asset transfer between Klaytn and EVM-compatible networks.

Orbit Chain should not be confused with Orbiter Finance, a cross-chain bridging protocol with a similar-sounding name.