December cryptocurrency hack brings total losses close to $100 million
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December 2023 experienced significant losses from cryptocurrency theft, with the latest attack on the Orbit Chain cross-chain bridge bringing total losses for the month to nearly $100 million, according to the blockchain security company.
Blockchain security firm PeckShield reported on January 1 that an $81.5 million vulnerability in Orbit Bridge was a major reason why December became the fifth-highest month for cryptocurrency hacks in 2023.
According to the report, this vulnerability is also the ninth largest hacker attack on cross-chain bridges in the past three years.
Orbit Bridge is a bridging service for the Orbit Chain protocol, a cross-chain protocol launched in South Korea in 2018. The company confirmed at 8:52 pm UTC on December 31 that it had been hacked due to a security vulnerability, resulting in heavy losses for various cryptocurrencies. Includes Ethereum (ETH), USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT) and Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).
In response to this breach, the Orbit Chain team announced on January 1 that they will work closely with global cryptocurrency exchanges and law enforcement agencies in an effort to freeze the stolen assets.
2023 Witnesses say hackers lost more than $1.5 billion
Blockchain security companies such as PeckShield, CertiK, and Beosin estimate that total cryptocurrency losses due to hackers, scams, and exploits in 2023 will be between $1.51 billion and $2 billion. Notably, 17% of these losses were attributed to the activities of the North Korean hacking group Lazarus.
September and November were particularly hard hit, with losses exceeding $700 million in those two months, PeckShield data shows. These include major incidents such as Mixin Network losing $200 million in September, as well as major vulnerabilities on Poloniex and HTX/Heco Bridge in November, which resulted in losses of $131.4 million and $113.3 million respectively.
There have been other noteworthy hacks in 2023, such as Euler Finance, which lost $197 million in March, and Multichain, which suffered a $125 million hack in July.
Despite these high-profile incidents, blockchain security company Beosin highlighted a significant decline in hacking, phishing scams, and fraud compared to 2022. Total losses in 2023 were down from about $4.38 billion the previous year.
The decrease in hacker attacks is most significant, plummeting from $3.6 billion in 2022 to $1.39 billion in 2023, a decrease of approximately 61.2%. The data demonstrates a relative improvement in security and vigilance in the cryptocurrency industry, although challenges remain.
