Hackers have withdrawn $230 million worth of crypto assets from the Indian WazirX exchange

The Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX has faced a serious security breach related to one of the multi-signature wallets. As a result, the platform lost more than $230 million worth of crypto assets.

The hacker stole $100 million worth of SHIB tokens, $52 million worth of 15,290 ETH and $11 million worth of 20 million MATIC. In addition, the attacker managed to withdraw 640 billion PEPE tokens for $ 7.5 million, 5.7 million USDT stablecoins and 135 million GALA for $3.5 million.

The management of WazirX has acknowledged the fact of a security breach. The exchange has suspended all operations for the withdrawal of cryptocurrencies and Indian rupees during the investigation of the incident. WazirX announced that the team is actively working to solve the problem.

Update: 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. Thank you for your patience and understanding.…

— WazirX: India Ka Bitcoin Exchange (@WazirXIndia) July 18, 2024

Blocksec co-founder Yajin Zhou suggested that the exploit could have arisen as a result of compromising the private key. The hacker took advantage of the leak of this key to upgrade a multi-signature wallet containing a large number of crypto assets to a malicious contract, and then withdrew most of the assets from the Safe Wallet.

Elliptic, an analytical company, suggested that North Korean hackers were involved in the hacking. After the exploit, the stolen funds were transferred to a new address using the Tornado Cash cryptomixer. Hackers have already exchanged stolen assets for ether using various decentralized services.

The incident immediately affected the cryptocurrency market. WazirX's own token, WRX, plummeted by 15% to $0.14. SHIB lost more than 6% in dollar terms and 16% against the Indian rupee (INR). Some crypto assets also suffered significant losses in trading pairs with INR on WazirX. For example, bitcoin paired with the rupee (BTC/INR) fell on the stock exchange by 11% to $60,945.

According to PeckShield analysts, in June hackers stole $176.2 million from cryptocurrency trading platforms. The largest hack in June occurred on the Turkish crypto exchange BtcTurk, which lost $100.25 million.