WazirX Reports 80 Intents on Bounty Within First 24 Hours, Says Working on Resuming Withdrawals

WazirX stated on X, “We urgently need more support from our ecosystem, security professionals, and ethical hackers.”

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 23 July 2024 12:03 IST

WazirX Reports 80 Intents on Bounty Within First 24 Hours, Says Working on Resuming Withdrawals

Photo Credit: Reuters

One multi-sig wallet of WazirX, overseen by Liminal Custody, was violated on July 18

Highlights

A total of $230 million is at risk after WazirX’s wallet hack
Indian government has not yet reacted to the unfortunate incident
WazirX users wait for exchange to restart withdrawals, trading amid bull

WazirX, that recently launched a bounty initiative worth $23 million (roughly Rs. 192 crore), is hoping to get its stolen funds of over $230 million (roughly Rs. 1,924 crore) traced through third party coders and hackers. The exchange, in an update shared on X, noted that it received 80 intents for its bounty initiative within the first 24 hours of launching the programme. The exchange is inviting members from India's tech community to help it recover as much of the stolen fund as possible. WazirX has also roped in law enforcement officers and India's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to identify the hacker and attempt to recover funds.

As part of its update on X, WazirX said, “We urgently need more support from our ecosystem, security professionals, and ethical hackers.”

We've received over 80 intents for our bounty program within 24 hours.

Time is critical. We urgently need more support from our ecosystem, security professionals, and ethical hackers.

While $23 million is the bounty, your impact on the community is invaluable.

Bounty details… pic.twitter.com/yUeeDjpujj
— WazirX: India Ka Bitcoin Exchange (@WazirXIndia) July 22, 2024

WazirX's bounty programme is offering USDT worth $10,000 (roughly Rs. 8.3 lakh) to those who can help it identify the stolen funds and freezing them. Meanwhile, WazirX has also called out the hacker to return the funds in exchange for its White Hat bounty worth $23 million (roughly Rs. 192 crore).

The bounty programme from WazirX will be valid for three months. Shetty, meanwhile, has called for support from the overall crypto community to assist in asset recovery.

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The crypto community of India, especially members of WazirX's userbase, have been restless since this rather sophisticated hack attack that transpired on July 18. One multi-sig wallet of WazirX, that was monitored by Liminal Custody, was breached by the hacker leading to the mega financial loss.

Since then, WazirX has kept deposits and withdrawals services suspended. Later, the exchange also halted trading on its platform.

In conversation with Gadgets360 earlier this week, users of the app had asked for clarity on the timeline around which WazirX plans to resume withdrawals. The app users fear seeing losses at a time when crypto is witnessing a bull run and Bitcoin is trading at a high price of $66,433 (roughly Rs. 55.5 lakh).

How Indian Crypto Exchanges Reacted to the WazirX Hack Aftermath

The exchange heard its users and addressed their questions through a short post on X.

We are actively working on enabling withdrawals for our users.

We appreciate your patience during this complex process. We will provide updates as soon as we have more information.

You can read our day-by-day incident report here :point_down:https://t.co/VUL18mfsA7
— WazirX: India Ka Bitcoin Exchange (@WazirXIndia) July 22, 2024

The co-founder of the exchange, Nischal Shetty has also said that the users will be informed about restarting the withdrawal services as soon as the details are finalised.

The industry analysts suspect North Korea's infamous Lazarus Group for carrying out this attack. There has, however, been no confirmation.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, WazirX Hack, Bounty Programme, Nischal Shetty

Radhika Parashar

Email Radhika

Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More