Crypto Heist: WazirX Freezes Stolen Assets Worth $3 Mn

Crypto Heist: WazirX Freezes Stolen Assets Worth $3 Mn

SUMMARY

WazirX has frozen stolen assets worth $3 Mn as part of the ongoing recovery efforts, nearly six months after it suffered a $235 Mn cyberattack

Cofounder Nischal Shetty said the company remains “fully committed to recovering stolen funds” and maximising recoveries under the Scheme of Arrangement

WazirX’s parent Zettai is actively working with law enforcement agencies to trace and retrieve the stolen assets

Crypto exchange WazirX has frozen stolen assets worth $3 Mn as part of the ongoing recovery efforts, nearly six months after a cyber attack wiped out nearly $235 Mn from one of its wallets.

“WazirX has been successful in freezing the first tranche of assets that were stolen during the cyberattack (‘Stolen Assets’), worth ~$3M USDT [Tether],” the company said in a statement.

WazirX’s parent Zettai said that it is actively working with law enforcement agencies, forensic experts, investigative authorities and legal experts to trace and retrieve the stolen assets while the platform goes through restructuring proceedings.

“This is just the beginning. We are fully committed to recovering the stolen funds … [and] maximise recoveries under a Scheme,” said Nischal Shetty, cofounder of WazirX.

In July last year, WazirX suffered a security breach in one of its multi-sig wallets, which resulted in the loss of crypto assets worth nearly $235 Mn. The cyber attack impacted over 4.4 Mn Indian users, who are yet to fully recover their funds.

Earlier this week, the US, Japan and South Korea issued a joint statement and blamed North Korea’s infamous hacking group Lazarus for the WazirX crypto heist.

Meanwhile, crypto unicorn CoinSwitch, earlier this month, launched an INR 600 Cr recovery programme to aid WazirX hack victims.

Recently, the Delhi High Court sought responses from the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on a petition calling for a probe by a special investigative team into WazirX’s security measures and operations.

Justice Sachin Datta, while hearing the case, said that WazirX would be held financially responsible if the breach resulted from its own security failures. 

“If someone from the dark web breached your platform, you cannot say sorry … I am curious to know if the government will wash its hands off in its affidavit,” Justice Datta said. 

The developments come on the heels of reports saying that WazirX is likely to fully resume crypto withdrawals on the platform by mid-April 2025

To resume trading, WazirX is pursuing a scheme of arrangement in Singapore, under which it plans to compensate affected users by rebalancing and distributing net liquid assets on the platform, sharing profits from a potential new decentralised exchange, and pursuing recovery of stolen assets.

As of December 5, 2024, WazirX held $565.7 Mn in digital assets. Users are seeking damages worth about $546 Mn.

WazirX is currently facing investigation by multiple government agencies such as the Financial Intelligence Unit, Intelligence Bureau, and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) in connection with the $235 Mn hack.

 

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