WazirX Hack: What Happened and What We Know About the Breach

Indian crypto exchange WazirX has suffered a major hack, according to several media reports. The exchange halted withdrawals on Thursday after $230 million in funds

Major Indian crypto exchange WazirX has announced a reward of $23 million for anyone who helps retrieve the stolen funds following a hack that saw $230 million in funds being pilfered from the exchange’s multisig wallets on 18 July.

The exchange has called upon white hat hackers, blockchain forensics experts, and cybersecurity professionals to join the recovery efforts.

"This could potentially amount to $23 million, making it one of the largest bounties ever offered in the crypto industry," the exchange said in a statement, as per NDTV.

“Our foremost goal is to recover the stolen funds. This bounty programme is designed to tap into the expertise of the community to achieve this critical objective,” WazirX founder Nischal Shetty said.

The company has also announced that it will be temporarily pausing trading.

WazirX posted on social media: “The cyber attack theft has impacted our ability to maintain 1:1 collaterals with assets, and we’ve temporarily paused trading. We’re conducting thorough forensic data examination and security audit procedures and working to enable withdrawals soon. User safety remains our top priority. Thank you for your patience and support during this challenging time. We will continue to provide regular updates.”

Meanwhile, the heads of other crypto exchanges have sought to reassure customers.

CoinSwitch co-founder Ashish Singhal wrote on social media, "We are aware of the recent security breach on the WazirX platform. We want to assure our users that their funds on CoinSwitch are secure and unaffected by this incident.

"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."

Sumit Gupta, co-founder of CoinDCX, said, "In light of the recent #WazirX breach, we want to reassure all CoinDCX users that your assets are safe and not impacted in any manner. Our wallet security remains robust."

Mudrex CEO Edul Patel, said, "We conduct regular audits to ensure a 1:1 ratio of funds. Additionally, our codebase goes through extensive scrutiny and review at many layers to ensure our tech infrastructure is immune to such exploits."

Others, however, are not so sanguine.

Mudit Gupta, a blockchain security researcher and chief information security officer at OxPolygon Labs, wrote on X, "RIP WazirX. Brace for another ‘crypto ban’ in India.

"Centralised exchanges are literally the opposite of decentralised finance and cryptocurrencies, but the politicians will use this hack to throw dirt at crypto. If you don’t understand it, ban it."