India’s largest crypto exchange, WazirX, has been hacked, resulting in the transfer of cryptocurrencies worth over ₹1,900 crore to an anonymous wallet. Republic Business has reached out to WazirX for confirmation of the total loss, but the exchange has yet to respond.
The hacker swapped Tether (USDT), Pepe tokens, and GALA into Ether. Blockchain data indicates that the Mumbai-based exchange’s secure multi-signature wallet on the Ethereum network has been compromised. In such wallets, multiple stakeholders' permissions are required for transactions.
WazirX acknowledged the breach and announced an active investigation. In a tweet, WazirX stated, “We're aware that one of our multisig wallets has experienced a security breach. Our team is actively investigating the incident.”
To safeguard assets, WazirX has halted all withdrawals, including INR deposits and cryptocurrencies. The exchange assured users, “To ensure the safety of your assets, INR and crypto withdrawals will be temporarily paused. Thank you for your patience and understanding. We'll keep you posted with further updates.”
Media reports suggest that the hacker is using Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer, to obscure the transaction history. The compromised address held approximately $100 million in Shiba Inu (SHIB), $52 million in Ethereum (ETH), and $11 million in Polygon (MATIC). Additionally, it contained $4.7 million in Floki (FLOKI), $3.2 million in Fantom (FTM), $2.8 million in Chainlink (LINK), and $2.3 million in Fetch.ai (FET), with the remaining funds spread across various other tokens.
