WazirX a cryptocurrency exchange that operates in India has halted all its operations and activities due to a major hack attack through which the attackers stole about $230 million – almost half of the exchange’s balance. The exchange posted the suspension on Twitter with an explanation that the security breach rendered it nearly impossible to adhere to the 1:1 collateral ratio with assets. This particular event has triggered some questions regarding the sufficiency of WazirX’s reserves, as well as concerning its capacities to compensate the customers.
There was a simple attack when an unauthorized user took over one of the exchanges’ multi-signature wallets containing approximately $300-400 mln worth of digital assets. Six signatories guarded the wallet, the five members out of them were from WazirX. The attack originated from a concern the attackers had for what was shown on Liminal’s interface, as opposed to the contents of the transactions.
In response to this, WazirX has created a bounty program that provides up to $23 million to anybody who can assist to recover the stolen assets. Based on the findings by the risk-management platform Elliptic they believe the attacker is from North Korea.
However, Indian exchanges, CoinSwitch and CoinDCX both have integration with WazirX and both said its customer was not affected despite the exposure. WazirX has described the security breach of the bitcoin account as a force majeure event, which signifies the event’s extremity.