New Delhi: In a major blow to the Indian cryptocurrency industry, WazirX, one of the country’s largest crypto exchanges, confirmed a significant security breach. Hackers infiltrated one of WazirX’s multisig wallets, making off with digital assets valued at a staggering $230 million (approximately ₹1,923 crores). Here are the key details:
The Breach and Immediate Action
- What Happened: WazirX detected unauthorized access to one of its multisig wallets, which requires multiple private keys for authentication.
- The Stolen Assets: The hackers targeted over 200 cryptocurrencies, including a whopping 5.43 billion SHIB tokens, 15,200 Ethereum tokens, 20.5 million Matic tokens, 640 billion Pepe tokens, 5.79 million USDT, and 135 million Gala tokens.
- North Korean Connection: Risk-management platform Elliptic traced the attackers’ affiliation to North Korea.
WazirX’s Response
- Temporary Withdrawal Halt: To safeguard users’ assets, WazirX immediately suspended Indian rupee and crypto withdrawals.
- Investigation Underway: The exchange’s team is actively investigating the incident.
- Liminal Custody Unaffected: Liminal Custody, a crypto storage provider, clarified that its platform remained secure. The compromised wallet was created outside the Liminal ecosystem.
- WazirX’s Reputation: The breach has raised concerns among users about the safety of their funds on the platform. Neeraj Khandelwal, co-founder of CoinDCX (WazirX’s competitor), expressed his concern for the Indian Web3 ecosystem.
WazirX, which separated from Binance in 2023, faces a daunting task in recovering the stolen funds. The crypto community anxiously awaits further updates from the exchange.
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