By
Chimamanda U. Martha
July 2nd, 2024
The hacker hasn’t moved the $20 million in DAI stolen or any other cryptocurrencies extracted from the cross-chain bridge.
After nearly five months of silence after stealing $82 million on New Year’s Eve, the hacker of the Orbit Chain recently moved a staggering $47.7 million to Tornado Cash, the popular cryptocurrency privacy mixer.
According to the on-chain data of June 8, the hacker moved a total of 12,932 Ether (ETH), valued at $47.7 million, across seven different transactions. As per the blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, the hacker first moved the funds to a new address, and further to Tornado Cash.
Recent information contradicts earlier reports, suggesting that the exploit resulted in losses closer to $100 million rather than the initially reported $82 million. Arkham, which was among the first entities to detect the transfer, stated in a June 8 post that the perpetrators made off with over $100 million in ETH and DAI from Orbit Chain five months ago, maintaining silence since then.
Further diagnosis into the Etherscan data shows that the $47.7 million in ETH sent by the hacker to Tornado Cash happened in batches of 100 ETH. Moreover, the hacker hasn’t moved the $20 million in DAI stolen or any other cryptocurrencies extracted from the cross-chain bridge.
Currently, their balance totals $71.2 million, consisting of $51.1 million in Ether along with minor holdings of wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), wrapped Ether (wETH), Orbit Chain (ORC), and USD Coin (USDC).
The Orbit Chain Hack
The cross-chain bridge Orbit Chain was hacked during the final hours of 2023 on December 31, 2023. After confirming the hack, Orbit Chain also stated that it was working with international law enforcement agencies.
Additionally, it also announced a bounty for anyone providing decisive intelligence that leads to identifying the attacker or recovering stolen assets. “As a maximum reward, we are offering $8M USD,” noted Orbit Chain.
Orbit Chain utilizes the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC) to facilitate the transfer of data and assets across the Cosmos ecosystem. As per DefiLlama data, the total value locked on the chain currently amounts to nearly $37 million.
However, this figure marks a significant decrease of over 75% compared to the value locked on the protocol just hours before the hack on December 31, which stood at $149.25 million. In August 2022, the value locked on the protocol peaked at $313 million.
Amid the solid run-up in the crypto market, the crypto thefts have also surged at the same pace. During the first quarter of 2024, hackers stole $542.7 million worth of cryptocurrencies, marking a 42% surge from the same period in 2023.