WazirX to Reverse Trades After Cyberattack

Indian crypto exchange WazirX has announced plans to undo all trades made after its withdrawal freeze on July 18, 2024.

“All users will have their portfolio balances on the WazirX platform restored to what they were on July 18, 2024, 1 p.m. IST,” the exchange stated. This action will be completed “over the next few days.”

The decision, which the exchange clarified was not made lightly, aims to protect the integrity of the platform and ensure a fair outcome for users following a cyberattack on July 18, 2024.

On that date, WazirX suffered a wallet exploit resulting in the unauthorized transfer of over $230 million in crypto assets. The attack targeted the exchange’s multisig wallet on Ethereum. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic indicated that hackers affiliated with North Korea likely conducted the exploit. WazirX halted trading shortly after the attack.

On July 27, WazirX proposed a “socialized loss strategy” via a social media poll, but it faced substantial backlash. CoinDCX co-founder Sumit Gupta criticized the proposal, saying: “Making customers directly absorb the 45% losses is utter nonsense,” and contended that the poll options prioritized the business over customer interests.