Orbit Chain Lost $81M To A Major Hack Exploit On New Year Eve

• Orbit Chain, a cross-chain project, suffered a major hack on New Year’s Eve, losing around $81M.
• The project is currently investigating the root cause of the breach and has engaged with international law enforcement agencies.
• Following the hack, the price of Orbit Chain’s native token, ORC, has dropped by nearly 20%, currently trading at $0.057.

Orbit Chain became a victim of $81M hack exploit on new year’s eve. Web3 security experts believe that the cross-chain project Orbit Chain lost around $81 million as the hackers gained access to seven out of ten multisig signers.

While the world was busy celebrating new year’s eve, the hackers were draining funds from yet another project.

Orbit Chain Investigates Root Cause of Hack

Orbit Chain informed the Orbit Bridge users regarding the hack incident. It wrote:

“An unidentified access to Orbit Bridge, a decentralized Cross-chain protocol, was confirmed on Dec-31-2023 08:52:47 PM +UTC.

Further information regarding the issue will be updated.”

The project says that it is conducting a comprehensive analysis to identify the root cause of the hack. Additionally, it informed users that it is engaging with international law enforcement agencies.

Due to the hack, the price of the native token – ORC- has been down by nearly 20% in the past 24 hours. The screenshot below shows that it is currently trading at $0.057

A threat researcher on X – @officer_cia believes that attackers might have accessed seven out of ten multisig signers. 

Looks like the attacker gained 7 out of 10 multisig signers…

— Officer's Notes (@officer_cia) December 31, 2023

Multisig wallets offer multiple private keys to access the crypto asset. In Orbit Chain’s case, there are a total of ten private keys. The transaction goes through successfully only if a specific number of key holders sign it.

See Also: BitMEX Founder Arthur Hayes Lost A Large Amount Of Money In His Recent Crypto Transactions

Also, as per @officer_cia, the hackers stole the following assets:

• 30 million USDT
• 10 million USDC
• 10 million DAI
• 230.879 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) worth $9.7 million
• 9500 Ethereum (ETH) worth $21.7 million

In total, the bad actors stole assets worth approximately $81.5 million. Not to mention, the hackers funded their fresh wallets through deposits from Tornado Cash.

Attack flow (infographics by @tayvano_ and @trmlabs) pic.twitter.com/A4dwaQDm1x

— Officer's Notes (@officer_cia) January 1, 2024

Beware Of Scammers

While the hackers have already stolen over $81 million from Orbit Chain, other scammers are trying to conduct phishing scams. 

The screenshot below shows that many scammers are impersonating Orbit Chain on X, asking the users to click on a link to claim reimbursement of the amount lost to the hack.

On careful notice, one can figure out that the scammers’ username has the wrong spelling of Orbit Chain. 

Shockingly, the scammers have a gold checkmark with a square profile picture indicating an official organization account. Whereas the original Orbit Chain account does not even have a Blue checkmark.

The company has strictly informed the users that the accounts claiming reimbursement are fake.

Important Notice

Any reimbursement claims currently circulating are scams. Please don’t engage. Only refer to this official account @Orbit_Chain for updates, which will be provided as the situation unfolds. pic.twitter.com/zhpYSE3Nra

— Orbit Chain (@Orbit_Chain) January 1, 2024

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