Indian Crypto Exchange WazirX Hit by Massive Hack, $230 Million Stolen

Biggest Indian crypto exchange WazirX suffered one of the biggest hacks and $230 million funds have been stolen. The funds stolen include Shiba Inu tokens, and the breach has been affected by hackers based in North Korea. The hack of the multisig wallet has led to the withdrawals being paused, and it also precipitated the tanking of values of WRX tokens.

The breach happened in the early European hours on Thursday (July 18) and affected one of its wallets, causing the loss of user funds. The breach was confirmed by WazirX in a post on X.

WazirX, also dubbed as ‘India Ka Bitcoin Exchange’, operates primarily for the Indian markets and is also one of the few Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) registered exchanges that offer crypto exchange services to Indian citizens.

WazirX’s post on X said:

“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. We’ll keep you posted with further updates.”

Origin of the hackers

According to a report published in Coindesk, Blockchain sleuth Elliptic suggests that North Korea-linked hackers appear to be behind the attack.

The report said:

“Transactional data shows the exploiter is actively selling the stolen holdings using the onchain exchange Uniswap. The exploiter is yet to sell their ETH holdings and holds over $4.2 million in FLOKI tokens.”

Aditya Singh, a crypto watcher and influencer, stated that preliminary investigations by researchers hint at the involvement of the Lazarus group.

The group has been indicted for hacks on exchanges and crypto mining marketplaces such as Bithumb, Youbit, and Nicehash in the past.

Initial investigations suggest that the hackers exploited a weakness in WazirX’s systems to siphon off a substantial amount of cryptocurrency.

A major portion of this included the Shiba Inu (SHIB) token. The news of the breach led to a sharp decline in the value of WazirX’s native token, WRX.

The latest high-profile hack has once again highlighted the risks associated with cryptocurrency trading and also emphasized the need for robust security measures in the industry. The Indian government is also examining the cryptocurrency industry and considering stricter regulations.

The hack has also cast shadows on the values of many crypto assets, which are being traded at a significant discount on WazirX. WazirX’s native token WRX slumped 15% in dollar terms, while SHIB has lost 6% since the attacker drained $100 million worth of the token from the Indian exchange.

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