Crypto Heist At WazirX: Assets Worth Nearly $235 Mn Stolen

Cryptocurrency exchange WazirX experienced a major security breach today (July 18), resulting in withdrawals of approximately $234.9 Mn during the early European hours.

The security breach impacted one of its wallets Safe Multisig on the Ethereum network, resulting in the loss of user funds.

“We’re aware that one of our multisig wallets has experienced a security breach. Our team is actively investigating the incident. To ensure the safety of your assets, INR and crypto withdrawals will be temporarily paused,” the company said in an X post.

As per ET’s report, citing cybersecurity firm Cyvers, multiple suspicious transactions were identified involving WazirX’s Safe Multisig wallet on the Ethereum network. According to their statement on X, approximately $234.9 Mn from the Safe Multisig wallet was transferred to a new address, with each transaction being funded by Tornado Cash, a fully decentralised protocol for private transactions on Ethereum.

“The suspicious address has already swapped $PEPE (Pepe), $GALA (Gala), and $USDT (Tether) to $ETH (Ether) and continues to swap other digital assets,” Cyvers said.

This comes at a time when the Enforcement Directorate seized crypto assets worth INR 90 Cr from Binance, ZebPay, and WazirX in connection with a money laundering case involving online gaming app E-Nugget, which allegedly operated under the guise of a gaming platform to attract users with promises of high returns. 

Law enforcement actions had led to assets totaling INR 163 Cr being seized, attached, or frozen, including cash, cryptocurrencies, bank balances, and office space.

Founded in 2017, WazirX is a bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange where you can buy, sell, and trade digital assets, catering to both first-time investors and professional traders alike.

As per its website, the company claims to specialise in cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency exchange, blockchain technology, digital assets, Tron, Bitcoin wallet, P2P transactions, buying Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Tron, and Matic in India, crypto trading, investing, NFTs, Dogecoin, and Polygon.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.