Hack alert: WazirX announces asset recovery bounty after $230M hack

• WazirX announces a bounty program to recover stolen.
• The hacking incident resulted to the exchange losing over $230 million.

Crypto crimes are rising as hackers continue to wreak havoc on the crypto community. WazirX, India’s largest crypto exchange, is the latest victim of the rising hacking within the DeFi space.

WazirX loses $230 million

Two days ago, WazirX reported a security breach resulting in hackers walking away with over $230 million worth of digital assets.  The company announced the hacking incident through its X (formerly Twitter) page,

“We’re aware that one of our multisig wallets has experienced a security breach. Our team is actively investigating the incident. To ensure the safety of your assets, INR and crypto withdrawals will be temporarily paused.”

The exchange blamed Laminal, arguing that the wallet targeted was using Laminal’s digital assets custody since last year. However, Laminal refuted the claims, arguing that their platform and infrastructure remained secure and that one hacked was a self-custody wallet.

WazirX announces bounty program

Since the security breach, WazirX is actively working to address the incident. After reporting to relevant authorities, the team is working to develop a bounty program.

The team recently shared that WazirX is currently preparing a bounty with the Co-founder Nischal Shetty reporting the development on the X page, stating that,

“The WazirX Team is actively working on the next steps 1. We’re preparing a bounty program to help us freeze/recover the stolen assets.”

Equally, the team actively engages with external experts to trace the movement of the stolen assets. He further explained that,

” Further discussions on continuous tracing of fund movements, we’re in touch with a few teams that claim to be experts at this. 3. We’ve informed all the other exchanges. Some have responded, and some are yet to. We are following up. Their support in recovery will be crucial as the stolen funds move. 4. Analysing data to understand the extent of damage.5. Working on further law enforcement and regulatory procedures.”

Shetty also argued that the hacking has affected the entire web3 ecosystem since WazirX is one of the leading exchanges in India.

Rising hacks in the crypto industry

Over the past year, hacks have more than doubled compared to the same period last year. According to a report, hackers had stolen more than $1.38 billion by June 2024 compared to $657 million in 2023.

The rising incidents show the dangers within the crypto space, web3, and the need for more secure systems and the same from such incidents.

Source: FinanceCoinTurk

With various players express their concerns with the rising hacking threat and its possible impact on Web3, blockchain and entire crypto ecosystem. For instance Engineer Reveals noted on X that,

“The recent breach on wazirx is going to leave a permanent scar if the funds are not returned back to investors, and this is surely going push authorities react much harsh on cutting edge web3 & blockchain tech in INDIA.”