The recent breach of Orbit Chain’s cross-chain bridge has elevated the total amount of cryptocurrency stolen in December to nearly $100 million, as reported by blockchain security firms.
On January 1, PeckShield, a blockchain security firm, highlighted that the exploit of the $81.5 million cross-chain bridge on Orbit Bridge marked December as the fifth-highest month for hacks in 2023. Additionally, it ranked as the ninth-highest hack targeting a cross-chain bridge in the past three years. Orbit Bridge, the bridging service for the cross-chain protocol Orbit Chain, initially launched in South Korea in 2018, confirmed it was breached due to unauthorized access to its ecosystem on December 31 at 8:52 pm UTC.
On January 1, the Orbit Chain team announced that it had formally requested major global cryptocurrency exchanges to freeze the stolen assets, stating, “We are in close contact with law enforcement agencies, and we are working diligently to track down and freeze the assets that have been stolen.”
Estimates from blockchain security firms PeckShield, CertiK, and Beosin suggest that the total crypto losses due to hacks, scams, and exploits throughout 2023 ranged between $1.51 billion and $2 billion. Notably, September and November witnessed significant losses, with over $700 million lost during those two months alone. This included Mixin Network’s loss of $200 million in September and the largest exploits in November on Poloniex and HTX/Heco Bridge, resulting in losses of $131.4 million and $113.3 million, respectively.
Several other notable hacks in the year included Euler Finance being exploited for $197 million in March and Multichain being hacked for $125 million in July. Despite these incidents, blockchain security firm Beosin highlighted substantial declines in hacks, phishing scams, and rug pulls compared to 2022, with total losses decreasing from approximately $4.38 billion. The most significant drop was observed in losses from hacks, decreasing from $3.6 billion in 2022 to $1.4 billion in 2023, reflecting a decrease of about 61.2%.
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