Indian Cryptocurrency Exchange WazirX Hacked for $234.9 Million

On July 18, Cyvers Alerts reported a breach of the Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX.

?ALERT?Hey @WazirXIndia, Our system has detected multiple suspicious transactions involving your Safe Multisig wallet on the #ETH network.

A total of $234.9M of your funds have been moved to a new address. Each transaction’s caller is funded by @TornadoCash.

The suspicious… pic.twitter.com/4sajAwd4Hb

— ? Cyvers Alerts ? (@CyversAlerts) July 18, 2024

Experts identified a series of suspicious transactions from the platform’s multisig wallet on the Ethereum network, resulting in assets worth $234.9 million being transferred to a new address.

Cyvers Alerts tracked that the perpetrator had already exchanged PEPE, GALA, and USDT for ETH. Additionally, over $100 million in Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens, 15,290 ETH ($52 million), and 20 million MATIC ($11 million) were stolen.

The exchange acknowledged the incident, suspended all withdrawals, and initiated an investigation.

? Update: 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. Thank you for your patience and understanding.…

— WazirX: India Ka Bitcoin Exchange (@WazirXIndia) July 18, 2024

“We are aware that one of our multisig wallets has been breached. Our team is actively investigating the incident. To ensure the safety of your assets, INR and crypto withdrawals have been temporarily suspended,” stated WazirX.

Representatives from the security firm Blocksec told The Block that the incident was caused by a private key leak. The perpetrator used it to update the secure wallet implementation to a malicious contract.

Anyone can help connect @WazirXIndia, something suspicious happened.https://t.co/YWyRDvoW1C pic.twitter.com/OPUzapmbQa

— BlockSec (@BlockSecTeam) July 18, 2024

Back in early 2022, WazirX was accused of tax evasion amounting to over $6 million.

In August of the same year, India’s Ministry of Finance’s Enforcement Directorate suspected the platform of laundering $350 million. According to media reports, the regulator froze the exchange’s assets worth $8.16 million as part of the case. The company later regained access to its accounts due to its cooperation with the investigation.