Significant Crypto Hacks in December 2023, with Orbit Bridge Exploit Leading the Surge
In December 2023, a significant increase in crypto thefts was triggered by an $81.5 million attack on Orbit Bridge, marking one of the largest attacks on cross-chain bridges in recent years.
Among the history of cryptocurrency thefts, December 2023 stands out as a particularly noteworthy month. This is mostly attributable to a huge exploit that occurred on the Orbit Bridge. On January 1, the blockchain security company PeckShield said that the $81.5 million vulnerability on Orbit Bridge marked December the fifth-largest month for hacks in the year. This month was the fifth highest month for hacks overall.
On the evening of New Year's Eve, a significant assault was launched against the Orbit Bridge, which is an essential component of the Orbit Chain ecosystem. This illegal breach resulted in the loss of the equivalent of $81.5 million worth of cryptocurrency, making it the ninth-largest assault on cross-chain bridges that has occurred over the course of the previous three years. The Orbit Chain team took quick action by demanding that bitcoin exchanges throughout the world freeze the money that had been stolen. Additionally, they worked along with law enforcement authorities to hunt down and secure the assets.
The assault on Orbit Bridge was a substantial contributor to the overall losses that occurred in the cryptocurrency landscape during the month of December, which amounted to approximately one hundred million dollars. There was a bigger tendency that was detected in 2023, which was that the overall losses that were caused by crypto hacks, frauds, and exploits fluctuated between $1.51 billion and $2 billion. This occurrence is a part of that larger trend. In particular, the months of September and November were extremely disastrous, with losses totaling more than 700 million dollars over the course of those two months.
Throughout the year 2023, the cryptocurrency industry was subjected to a number of high-profile attacks. Among them were the Mixin Network, which suffered a loss of $200 million in September, and substantial exploits on Poloniex and HTX/Heco Bridge in November, which resulted in losses of $131.4 million and $113.3 million, respectively. The Euler Finance attack, which resulted in a loss of $197 million in March, and the Multichain breach, which resulted in a loss of $125 million in July, were two more noteworthy events.
In 2023, blockchain security company Beosin saw a considerable decrease in the number of hacks, phishing scams, and rug pulls in comparison to the previous year. This was the case despite the high-profile occurrences that occurred in 2023. In 2023, the total losses were around $1.4 billion, which is a decline of approximately 61.2% from the previous year's total of approximately $4.38 billion. This drop offers evidence that the environment of blockchain security is improving, as well as the efficacy of remedies that have been implemented by the cryptocurrency community.
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