The Indian exchange WazirX suffers a massive hack, resulting in the loss of over $230 million belonging to customers. They temporarily suspended withdrawals from the accounts but proceeded to upload the account balances.
The exchange also engaged in addressing the issue of one of its Safe Multisig wallets that had been impacted by the hack.
As per the Natural Language Processing results, it was found that the largest Bitcoin exchange in India, WazirX was hacked which initiated loss of $234 million of the client’s deposits. They agreed that the hack occurred about a month ago, on July 18th, and compromised 45% of users’ money.
People have speculated that it was an act committed by North Korean hackers. As soon as WazirX realized the problem, it acted to resolve the issue and regain the lost amount.
WazirX fixes wallets, withdrawals still frozen
The company shared that their team is working to fix the problems. They are focused on restoring both Indian Rupee (INR) balances and settling crypto balances.
In their announcement, the exchange explained that they need time to carefully review the legal aspects before they can fully solve the issues. They also mentioned partnering with others to find lasting solutions.
In a separate post on X, the exchange said the maintenance work is done, and all bad trades made during the hack have been reversed. They’ve restored account balances, but withdrawals are still not allowed yet.
The maintenance team fixed the exchange’s Safe Multisig wallets that were affected by the hack. They also updated the platform so customers can see their account balances, but withdrawals are still not allowed.
People are upset because there’s no clear date for when they can access and withdraw their money. It could take a long time, similar to the Mt. Gox case, where creditors waited almost ten years for refunds.
One Indian investor asked the exchange to quickly allow withdrawals and restart crypto trading.
Indian exchange WazirX first suggested a plan where everyone would share the losses. They proposed giving affected users 55% of their assets right away, while the other 45% would be turned into stablecoin USDT and locked. However, this plan was criticized by many users and investors.
In response to the hack, India’s Bharat Web3 Association (BWA) stepped up to protect consumers and improve cybersecurity. A local news source said that BWA created two teams to investigate what happened and ensure customer safety.
These teams will include people from member companies like Coinbase, Polygon, Tax Nodes, Biconomy, and Hike.
