$235M Heist: Indian Crypto Exchange Hacked!

Web3 security firm Cyvers has identified “multiple suspicious transactions” involving the Safe Multisig wallet of WazirX on the Ethereum network.

According to a post on X, it is believed that $234.9 million worth of funds from the Safe Multisig wallet of the Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX has been transferred to a new address. Each of these transactions was funded by Tornado Cash, a decentralized protocol designed for private transactions.

The new address has already converted the transferred funds, which included Tether (USDT), Pepe (PEPE), and Gala (GALA), into Ether (ETH).

In a Telegram post in the “Investigations by ZachXBT” channel, crypto investigator ZachXBT revealed that the primary suspected attacker address still holds over $104 million worth of assets yet to be sold.

The compromised wallet primarily contained approximately $100 million in Shiba Inu (SHIB), $52 million in Ether (ETH), and $11 million in Polygon (MATIC). Additionally, it held $4.7 million in Floki (FLOKI), $3.2 million in Fantom (FTM), $2.8 million in Chainlink (LINK), $2.3 million in Fetch.ai (FET), and smaller amounts spread across a wide range of other tokens.

In response to this significant security breach, the Indian exchange WazirX has temporarily halted the withdrawal of both cryptocurrencies and Indian rupees on their platform.

and will provide updates as the situation develops.

On March 21, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Indian Ministry of Finance issued compliance notices to several foreign crypto exchanges, including OKX.

The notice sent to Indian OKX users requested that they close their accounts and redeem funds before April 30, as the exchange announced it was “no longer providing services to users in India.”

Despite almost four years of ongoing discussions, the Indian government has yet to establish a clear regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency market in India, leaving the future of crypto regulation in the country uncertain.