Mumbai-based
crypto exchange
WazirX has halted withdrawals from the platform after suffering a major
hacking attack
. India's biggest crypto exchange confirmed the same in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
WazirX
saw withdrawals in early European hours on Thursday (July 18). WazirX, which popularly calls itself as 'India Ka Bitcoin Exchange', primarily targets the Indian market.
It is said to be among the few Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) registered exchanges in the country, allowing it to offer crypto exchange services to Indian citizens.
The company called the security breach a “force majeure event” that has reportedly resulted in the loss of $230 million. “This is a force majeure event beyond our control, but we are leaving no stone unturned to locate and recover the funds. We have already blocked a few deposits and reached out to concerned wallets for recovery. We are in touch with the best resources to help us in this endeavor,” WazirX said in a statement posted on its X account.
“The cyber attack stemmed from a discrepancy between the data displayed on Liminal’s interface and the transaction’s actual contents,” said WazirX in a statement on Thursday. “During the cyber attack, there was a mismatch between the information displayed on Liminal’s interface and what was actually signed. We suspect the payload was replaced to transfer wallet control to an attacker.”
What makes $230 million in stolen funds important
Reports suggest that the platform has lost about $230 million. What makes the amount of missing assets significant for WazirX is that the company reported holdings of about $500 million in its June proof-of-reserves disclosure. This means that WazirX has lost almost half its reserves. According to Cyvers estimate, the amount lost from the multiple-signature wallet on WazirX would be one of the biggest crypto thefts in recent years.
Listing of what all has been stolen from WazirX
Lookchain, a third-party blockchain explorer, reported that more than 200 cryptocurrencies, including 5.43 billion SHIB tokens, over 15,200 Ethereum tokens, 20.5 million Matic tokens, 640 billion Pepe tokens, 5.79 million USDT and 135 million Gala tokens were “stolen” from the platform.
What about WazirX's biggest rivals
CoinSwitch and CoinDCX are the two other leading crypto exchanges in India. The two companies assured their customers that their funds were secure and unaffected by this incident. “Our wallet security remains robust,” Sumit Gupta, co-founder and chief executive of CoinDCX, wrote in a tweet.
“We advise all our crypto investors to be mindful of potential market volatility during this time and exercise caution in their trading and investment activities,” tweeted Ashish Singhal, co-founder and chief executive of PeepalCo, the group holding firm of CoinSwitch.
What investigations reportedly say
According to media reports quoting Blockchain sleuth Elliptic, the North-Korea linked hackers appear to be behind the attack. Leakage of a private key providing access to the wallet reportedly led to the hack. The leaked private keys reportedly are used to upgrade a safe multi-sig wallet, which holds a large number of assets, to a malicious contract
WazirX vs Binance
India's larges crypto platform WazirX separated from global crypto major Binance in early 2023. The two crypto exchanges had a public and high-profile fallout in 2022. Two ownership disputes started two years after Binance announced it had acquired WazirX. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao eventually said that the two firms hadn’t been able to conclude the deal and moved to terminate Binance’s businesses with the Indian firm.
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