WazirX Hack Update: Founder Reveals Details On Fund Recovery, Withdrawals
In the wake of a major hack that resulted in the theft of over $230 million from Indians WazirX exchange, founder Nischal Shetty has addressed important queries. He shed light on important updates on the platform’s recovery efforts and the reinstatement of withdrawals. The hack, which occurred through a third-party custody provider named Liminal, affected the digital assets of WazirX customers, but not the INR funds.
WazirX Founder On Fund Recovery & Withdrawals After $230M Hack
In a series of posts on X, Nischal Shetty provided reassurances and outlined the next steps the exchange is taking to manage the fallout. He highlighted that “some options have emerged to help with the recovery which we’re exploring.” Shetty added:
“Recovery options need more time but we understand you want us to open the platform soon for withdrawal/deposit/trading. We will run a poll to help our customers decide the approach to opening up the platform. Team is working on building the poll flow so everyone can participate.”
He emphasized that despite the severity of the hack, the WazirX product platform and infrastructure remained secure. Shetty added, “P.S. INR funds are unaffected in this cyber attack. The attack was during the flow of our custody provider Liminal. WazirX product platform and infrastructure was not breached.”
Following the hack, the WazirX team has been proactive in trying to recover the stolen funds. They revealed, “We have received 133 entries for our Bounty Program so far and are currently reviewing them. Join us in supporting the crypto community and register now. A $23 million bounty is available for solutions that effectively lead to a resolution.”
This bounty is part of two programs launched by WazirX for on-chain investigators. It includes the track and freeze bounty, which offers up to $10,000 in Tether (USDT) for actionable intelligence that leads to the freezing of the stolen funds. In addition, the crypto exchange has offered the white hat recovery bounty. It will reward ethical hackers with up to 10% of the amount they can help recover.
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Developments After The Cyber Attack
Recent developments have shown that the hacker has transferred $57 million worth of the stolen funds to two new cryptocurrency addresses. Blockchain security firm PeckShield reported that 16,350 Ether (ETH), valued over $57 million, was moved to new wallets, with the majority sent to the address “0x58d.”
The hack targeted WazirX’s multi-signature wallet, which was used for storing ETH and ERC-20 tokens. This wallet, created using Gnosis Safe, involved six signatories: five from WazirX and one from Liminal. “Three signatures of WazirX from three different devices, each using different hardware wallets, were used. All three devices were at different locations, and the links were bookmarked,” the WazirX team explained.
As the investigation continues, WazirX has engaged an external forensic team to conduct a thorough audit. “This will confirm whether any or all of the 3 WazirX devices were compromised. But we’re not experts at forensics, so an external forensic team will be engaged to conduct a thorough audit. This will give us better insight into whether the 3 signatures on the malicious payload were a result of a compromise or not,” the team stated.
Furthermore, the WazirX team revealed they are actively working with over 500 crypto exchanges to recover stolen funds due to the hack. In addition, they have also sought India’s Financial Intelligence Unit’s (FIU) help to track the lost funds. However, the exploiter has converted the majority of funds in Ethereum. They have been active of Tornado Cash, which raises concerns of ETH funds laundering.
Also Read: Bitwise CIO Teases More Crypto ETFs After Ethereum Success, Solana & XRP Next?
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