Excerpt from India Today Article, Published on July 19, 2024
Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX has faced a massive security breach, leading to significant user fund losses and $230 million in withdrawals. The company announced the breach in a post on X, stating, “At WazirX, our commitment to transparency and community welfare is paramount. There was a cyber attack on one of our multisig wallets.”
The breach has resulted in the loss of user funds and withdrawals totaling $230 million, representing more than 45 percent of the total reserves reported by the exchange in June 2024. In response, WazirX has temporarily paused INR and crypto withdrawals on the platform to ensure the safety of users’ assets.
A multisig (multi-signature) wallet in crypto exchanges requires multiple private keys to authorize a transaction, enhancing security by preventing unauthorized access and ensuring that funds can only be moved with approval from multiple parties. Despite these measures, the hacker managed to exploit a discrepancy between the data displayed on Liminal’s interface and the transaction’s actual contents. The hacker is currently selling the stolen tokens, which include $100 million in Shiba Inu and $52 million in Ether, on the on-chain exchange Uniswap.
WazirX has shared the affected wallet address: 0x27fD43BABfbe83a81d14665b1a6fB8030A60C9b4. Liminal Custody, in a statement, confirmed that the breach occurred outside of its platform, asserting that Liminal’s infrastructure, wallets, and assets remain safe. The statement added that all WazirX wallets created on the Liminal platform continue to be secure, and the Liminal team is assisting WazirX in their investigation.
WazirX is actively investigating the breach and working on recovering the lost funds. The exchange has already blocked a few deposits and reached out to concerned wallets for recovery. WazirX stated, “This is a force majeure event beyond our control, but we are leaving no stone unturned to locate and recover the funds. We have already blocked a few deposits and reached out to concerned wallets for recovery. We are in touch with the best resources to help us in this endeavor.”
WazirX, launched in 2018, is a cryptocurrency exchange based in India, allowing users to buy, sell, and trade various cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others. The platform provides features such as spot trading, staking, and peer-to-peer transactions, along with a native utility token (WRX) and integration with Binance, a global cryptocurrency exchange.
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