WazirX Hit With Security Breach With $234.9 Million Said to Be at Stake; Withdrawals, Deposits Halted

As per Cyvers, the address to which funds from WazirX were moved has already managed to swap PEPE, GALA, and USDT tokens to Ether.

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by Manas Mitul | Updated: 18 July 2024 14:48 IST

WazirX Hit With Security Breach With $234.9 Million Said to Be at Stake; Withdrawals, Deposits Halted

Photo Credit: Facebook/ WazirX

WazirX has not yet commented on the safety of user funds saved on the platform

Highlights

WazirX was founded in March 2018
The sum has reportedly been moved to an address linked to Tornado Cash
WazirX’s latest proof of reserve showed total holdings at Rs. 4,203 crore

WazirX crypto exchange confirmed Thursday that one of its multi-signature wallets had suffered a security breach. The Indian exchange was first informed about a possible breach by security firm Cyvers Alerts through a post on X. Cyvers, in its post, noted that a sum of $234.9 million (roughly Rs. 1,965 crore) was suspiciously moved from the exchange to a new address linked to the controversial crypto mixer platform, Tornado Cash.

In an official statement addressing the incident, WazirX said: “We're aware that one of our multisig wallets has experienced a security breach. Our team is actively investigating the incident.” For now, WazirX has suspended all withdrawal and deposit services on its platform.

As per Cyvers, the address to which funds from WazirX were moved has already managed to swap PEPE, GALA, and USDT tokens to Ether. In a screenshot shared by the security firm, the malicious actor moved the hefty amount through three transactions, with exploit level showing as ‘critical' on Cyvers' software.

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:rotating_light:ALERT:rotating_light:Hey @WazirXIndia, Our system has detected multiple suspicious transactions involving your Safe Multisig wallet on the #ETH network.

A total of $234.9M of your funds have been moved to a new address. Each transaction's caller is funded by @TornadoCash.

The suspicious… pic.twitter.com/4sajAwd4Hb
— :rotating_light: Cyvers Alerts :rotating_light: (@CyversAlerts) July 18, 2024

Gadgets360 reached out to Cyvers to understand more about the breach and is yet to receive an explanation on how a multi-sig wallet became the hotspot for this attack in the first place. Multi-signature wallets require two or more private keys (signatures) from different co-signers to authorise a transaction.

WazirX has not yet commented on the safety of user funds saved on the platform despite several users asking about the same under the exchange's situation update on X. The crypto exchange is also yet to confirm the amount claimed to have been moved from its platform to the suspicious address.

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“Thank you for your patience and understanding. We'll keep you posted with further updates,” the platform noted.

User's funds are safe??
— Zia ul Haque (@ImZiaulHaque) July 18, 2024

As per its blog, WazirX has a userbase of over 16 million. Earlier in June 2024, the exchange had published its latest proof-of-reserve that showed its total holdings valued at Rs. 4,203 crore.

The report, at the time, had claimed that WazirX maintained a reserve-to-liabilities ratio exceeding 1:1 to meet withdrawal demands even in unforeseen circumstances

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, WazirX, Hack, Crypto Exchange

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