Crypto Exchange WazirX Sees $230M in Suspicious Withdrawals, Largely $100M in SHIB

Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX suffered a security breach in one of its multi-signature wallets, leading to the loss of user funds and withdrawals of over $230 million.

The attacker is actively selling the stolen tokens, including $100 million worth of Shiba Inus and $52 million worth of Ether, on the Uniswap onchain exchange.

These stolen funds account for more than 45% of the total reserves stated in the exchange’s June 2024 report.

Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX suffered a security breach affecting one of its wallets early Thursday morning, resulting in over $230 million in withdrawals and loss of user funds.

“We are aware that one of our multi-signature wallets has experienced a security breach. Our team is actively investigating the incident,” the exchange confirmed in an X post. “To ensure the safety of your assets, INR and crypto withdrawals will be temporarily suspended.”

In a follow-up post a few hours after the initial verification, WazirX noted that the provider of the multi-signature wallet is crypto custody firm Liminal.

The stolen funds account for more than 45 percent of the $500 million in assets the exchange disclosed in a June report.

At the time of writing, the Indian stock exchange’s live proof of reserve site was down for maintenance.

Multi-signature wallets are a type of crypto wallet that requires two or more private keys to authenticate and confirm transactions before they can be processed.

Early blockchain data tracked by Lookonchain shows that the most lost funds were withdrawn at $100 million worth of shiba inu (SHIB) tokens, followed by $52 million worth of ether {{ETH}}, $11 million worth of Matic’s MATIC, and $6 million worth of pepe (PEPE).

Transactional data shows that the exploiter is actively selling stolen shares using the on-chain exchange Uniswap. The exploiter has yet to sell any ETH shares and holds over $4.2 million worth of FLOKI tokens

The story continues

WazirX is popular among Indian traders and primarily targets the Indian market. It is one of the few Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) registered exchanges in the country, which allows it to offer cryptocurrency exchange services to Indian citizens.

According to CoinGecko data, WazirX processed at least $2.2 million in volume in the last 24 hours, with stablecoins tether (USDT) and XRP leading the trading volume.

UPDATE (July 18, 08:25 UTC): Added context and background.

UPDATE (July 18, 08:41 UTC): Added bullet points and additional details regarding reserves.

UPDATE (July 18, 09:49 UTC): Added additional comment from WazirX.

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