WazirX to restart trading and share revenue to pay back victims of $235m hack

WazirX plans to relaunch trading with new features, a recovery token, and a decentralized exchange to make creditors whole.

Speaking at the company’s fourth town hall session on YouTube, WazirX co-founder Nischal Shetty revealed plans to airdrop “recovery tokens” to creditors, allowing them to recover 48% of the funds they lost by buying and selling the tokens on the platform. Tokens will be distributed proportionally.

To support recovery efforts, the exchange plans to restart trading by February 2025 and allocate a portion of the fees generated to the rescue of creditors through the buyback of recovery tokens. Additionally, to maximize revenue generation, the exchange will introduce new offerings, crypto staking, over-the-counter desk and futures trading.

Alongside the new offerings, Shetty added that the company is in the early stages of developing a decentralized exchange that will work alongside the existing platform, citing growing calls from users for self-custody options.

The DEX will include a native governance token that will allow users to trade and earn rewards within the decentralized ecosystem, while increasing liquidity and user engagement. A portion of the revenue generated from the platform will be transferred to rescue efforts. Users will also be able to exchange recovery tokens for DEX tokens.

The exchange plans to recover funds by selling tokens held by third parties and is exploring partnerships with “white knight” investors for recovery financing, among other efforts.

“We will continue to pursue legal actions to actively recover illiquid and stolen assets and ensure they are secured for the benefit of Creditors,” the exchange wrote in a Nov. 6 post.

WazirX’s recovery efforts follow a $235 million hack in July that forced it to suspend operations in Singapore, where its parent company Zettai is based, and continue a restructuring process.

So far, customers have been able to withdraw 55% of their cryptocurrency assets and 66% of their cash deposits; The rest of the fiat and crypto balances could not be accessed.

Meanwhile, the platform has come under intense scrutiny from regulators as India’s Financial Intelligence Unit is reportedly investigating WazirX. A coalition of victims is currently pursuing a class action with the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in India, along with two additional cases filed in the Delhi High Court.