WazirX, India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, reported more than $235 million in withdrawals on July 18 after a hacking attack.
The exchange confirmed the security breach in an X post, stating that it affected its multi-sig wallets.
“We are aware that one of our multisig wallets has experienced a security breach. Our team is actively investigating the incident,” the exchange said.
It further noted that withdrawals would be temporarily halted to allow further investigations into the matter.
North Korean Hackers Steal $235M From WazirX
Blockchain security firm Elliptic attributed this hacking attack to “hackers affiliated with North Korea. The platform came to this conclusion after analyzing on-chain data and other details.
The hackers managed to steal over 200 different crypto assets from the WazirX exchange. These assets include Shiba Inu (SHIB), Ether (ETH), Polygon (MATIC), and PEPE (PEPE).
On-chain transactions spotted early Wednesday show that the hacker had already moved some coins to different wallet addresses.
The report by Elliptic noted that the hacker had already swapped some of these tokens for Ether using decentralized services. Moving the funds using decentralized platforms is used by hackers to launder stolen funds and minimize the chances of recovery.
According to on-chain transactions, the hacker is also selling some of the stolen assets using the Uniswap decentralized finance (DeFi) platform.
Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT also solved a bounty offered by WazirX to identify the attacker. The investigator tabled evidence of a centralized exchange deposit used in the breach.
The investigator confirmed that the nature of the attack shows that the notorious Lazarus Group might be behind the exploit. ZachXBT further said that the KYC exchange deposit might not be sufficient in tracing the movement of the funds.
The recent hack comes amid an increase in hacking exploits. In June, crypto hacks toppled $176M.
Stolen Funds Represent Over 45% Of Exchange Reserves
The $235M stolen from this hacking exploit accounts for more than 45% of the exchange’s holdings. In June, the exchange revealed that it holds $500M worth of cryptocurrencies as part of its proof of reserves.
WazirX is among the most popular exchanges among Indian crypto investors. The exchange is registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), making it among the few platforms authorized to offer crypto trading services in India.
Data from CoinGecko shows that this cryptocurrency exchange has posted trading volumes of around $4.6 million in the last 24 hours.
The breach comes as crypto trading platforms in India face harsh regulatory environments. Earlier this year, the FIU sent a notice to foreign crypto exchanges, including OKX, for non-compliance.
The notice led to the OKX exchange halting its operations in India. The exchange urged all Indian-based users to withdraw their holdings and close their accounts before April 30, 2024.
