Orbit Chain lost about $81 million in New Year's Eve bridge exploit

Orbit Chain, a South Korean cross-chain bridge protocol built by the developer Ozys, lost roughly $81 million in cryptocurrency on December 31, 2023, in one of the last major crypto thefts of the year.

Blockchain watchers spotted a series of large outflows from the protocol's Ethereum vault, moved in five transactions to newly created wallets. Reported totals varied slightly by outlet. The Block put the loss at $81.5 million, while CoinDesk described roughly $64 million in ether and $18 million in DAI. Other tallies also counted tether, USD Coin and wrapped bitcoin among the drained assets. Researchers said the attacker had funded the initial wallet through the Tornado Cash mixing service.

Orbit Chain confirmed the breach publicly on January 1, 2024 and said the stolen funds had not been moved on. Its total value locked fell from about $152 million to $71 million, and its ORC token dropped more than 13 percent before recovering some ground.

The project said it was working with the Korean National Police Agency and the Korea Internet and Security Agency, had asked major exchanges to freeze associated assets and had engaged outside security specialists. It later said it had identified a significant lead while tracing the funds but gave no detail. Analysts noted the pattern resembled thefts attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group, though no attribution was confirmed.