News
Crypto Platform WazirX Suffers Security Breach, Sees $230 Million Siphoned
Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX saw withdrawals of more than $230 million in the early hours of Thursday in Europe following a security breach that affected one of its wallets, resulting in the loss of users’ funds.
“We are aware that one of our multisig wallets has suffered a security breach. Our team is actively investigating the incident. To ensure the safety of your assets, INR and crypto withdrawals will be temporarily suspended. Thank you for your patience and understanding. We will keep you updated with further updates,” the cryptocurrency platform said in a post on X.
The exchange confirmed the incident, saying it is currently investigating the outflows and has temporarily suspended all withdrawals.
“We have identified 2 more exploited smart contracts. Our team is still investigating the incident. For now, we have opened an isolated website to revoke all approvals. Your funds are at risk until you revoke,” the company added.
Multisig wallets are a type of cryptocurrency wallet that requires two or more private keys to authenticate and confirm transactions before they can be processed.
Initial blockchain data tracked by Lookonchain indicates that over $100 million in Shiba Inu Dog (SHIB) were withdrawn, marking the largest loss among the funds, followed by $52 million in Ether (ETH), $11 million in Matic’s MATIC, and $6 million in Pepe (PEPE).
Transactional data indicates that the exploiter is actively selling the stolen assets on the on-chain exchange Uniswap. While the exploiter has not yet sold his ETH holdings, he currently holds over $4.2 million in FLOKI tokens.
WazirX, popular among Indian traders, primarily caters to the Indian market and is one of the few exchanges in the country registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). This registration allows WazirX to offer cryptocurrency exchange services to Indian citizens.
According to CoinGecko data, WazirX generated at least $2.2 million in trading volume over the past 24 hours, with the majority of transactions involving the stablecoins Tether (USDT) and XRP.