Orbit Chain, a South Korean platform designed to act as a multi-asset blockchain hub, revealed a massive breach on December 31, 2023.
The company disclosed an "unidentified access to Orbit Bridge," its decentralised cross-chain technology, which resulted in the theft of more than $80 million in cryptocurrency.
Orbit Chain revealed specifics of the theft in a series of posts on X, saying the hacker employed cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash to fund an initial Ethereum wallet before attacking Orbit Chain's Ethereum vault. Last year, Tornado Cash made headlines when its co-founders were charged with money laundering.
The stolen funds were then transferred to a number of Ethereum wallets. Orbit Chain's Bridge balance fell from $115 million to $31 million between December 31 and January 1, according to blockchain analytics company Arkham Intelligence.
Orbit Chain stated in a post on X earlier this week (2 January) that the stolen assets "remain unmoved" at the time of publishing and that the team is constantly tracking the stolen funds.
“Orbit Chain team has developed a system for investigation support and cause analysis with the Korean National Police Agency and KISA (Korea Internet and Security Agency), enabling a more proactive and comprehensive investigation approach. Furthermore, we are also discussing close cooperation with domestic and foreign law enforcement agencies,” the firm explained in a post. “We sincerely request that all members of the Orbit Chain community and the Web3 ecosystem help spread this information as widely as possible.”
Crypto turmoil
Over the past few years, the crypto industry has come under more scrutiny; many have dubbed it an unregulated "wild west."
Particularly in 2023, there were several widely reported crypto attacks. Hackers exploited vulnerable code to steal an estimated $197 million from the UK-based cryptocurrency platform Euler Finance in March. The money was later refunded by the hackers, though.
In the meantime, a significant hack on the Ethereum-based cryptocurrency exchange Curve occurred in July 2023. A few months later, in September, a report published by the blockchain analytics firm Elliptic claimed that the well-known North Korean hacker group Lazarus had stolen nearly $240 million in cryptocurrency in less than four months.
Apart from cybercriminal attacks, the crypto business has received attention for the exploits of its own executives. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange FTX, was likely the most notorious, having been convicted of conspiracy to conduct wire fraud and money laundering. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to federal money-laundering crimes in November 2023.
Despite all of this illicit activity, efforts have been made to regulate this unregulated industry. Markets in Crypto Assets, often known as MiCA, was passed by EU lawmakers in April of last year as a major piece of legislation for managing and preserving the crypto industry.
The legislation went into effect in June 2023 and is now in the implementation phase, which involves consultations on a variety of technical standards. The European Securities and Markets Authority intends to submit the proposed technical standards for approval to the European Commission by June 30, 2024.