India’s Premier Crypto Exchange WazirX Compromised in $235M Theft

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As a seasoned crypto investor with several years of experience under my belt, I find the recent hacking incident at WazirX, India’s largest crypto exchange, deeply concerning. Having witnessed various market fluctuations and security breaches in the past, I understand that such events are an inherent risk in this space. However, the scale and impact of this particular attack have left me feeling uneasy.

India’s premier cryptocurrency exchange, WazirX, has suffered a major cyberattack, resulting in the theft of approximately $235 million worth of digital assets. Consequently, the platform has temporarily halted withdrawals, causing substantial declines in market value for all affected cryptocurrencies.

Security Breach and Initial Report

On Thursday, a major security incident occurred at India’s leading crypto exchange, WazirX. The breach was first brought to WazirX’s attention by cybersecurity firm Cybers, who reported that an unauthorized individual had gained access to the exchange’s Safe wallet.

Cyvers announced on X.com, 

“Hello WazirX, our system has identified several questionable transactions linked to your Safe Multisig wallet on the Ethereum network. Approximately $234.9 million of your assets have been transferred to a new address. We’ve noticed that each transaction originated from an account previously associated with Tornado Cash, a privacy solution.”

As a crypto investor, I’ve noticed a tweet indicating that I tried reaching out to WazirX regarding an issue with Cyvers, but unfortunately, I haven’t received any response yet.

Details of the Attack

Based on the findings in the report, approximately $234.9 million in funds from WazirX’s Secure Multisig wallet were transferred to a newly identified address. These transactions took place utilizing Tornado Cash, a decentralized platform engineered for confidential transactions. The stolen resources, consisting of Tether (USDT), Pepe (PEPE), and Gala (GALA), were subsequently converted into Ether (ETH).

Further Investigation Findings

ZachXBT delved deeper into the incident on Telegram, uncovering that the main hacker’s wallet is currently holding approximately $104 million in total. The breached wallet initially contained around $100 million worth of Shiba Inu (SHIB), about $52 million in Ethereum (ETH), and roughly $11 million in Polygon (MATIC). Furthermore, this wallet had over $4.7 million in FLOKI, nearly $3.2 million in Fantom (FTM), close to $2.8 million in Chainlink (LINK), and around $2.3 million in Fetch.ai (FET). It also held smaller amounts of various other tokens.

WazirX’s Response

WazirX acknowledged a security incident on X.com and initiated a thorough probe into the matter. Their announcement disclosed this information.

The team remained silent about the security of users’ funds and their plans for retrieving the stolen property.

Market Impact

WazirX’s reserves have taken a significant hit due to the recent hack, causing a substantial decrease in value for WRX, their native token, which is now trading at around 14 cents, or approximately 10 rupees more than a 15% drop. SHIB has experienced a loss of over 6% in U.S. dollar terms and nearly 16% in Indian rupee terms as a result of the hacker selling off coins. The BTC/INR pair has seen an 11% decline, now priced at roughly $60,945, as traders scramble to sell their Bitcoin for fiat currency following the attack.

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2024-07-18 17:03