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As of its most recent financial disclosure in June 2024, the company had more than $500m in reserves. It now holds a little more than half that amount.
Indian crypto company WazirX has announced plans to “distribute” the impact of a recent cyberattack that saw $230m stolen from customer funds.
WazirX lost nearly half (45pc) of its reserves in a security breach around two weeks ago, when one of its multisig wallets (a crypto wallet that requires two or more private keys for authentication) operated by a third party called Liminal was compromised in a cyberattack.
“The cyberattack stemmed from a discrepancy between the data displayed on Liminal’s interface and the transaction’s actual contents,” said WazirX in a statement.
“During the cyberattack, there was a mismatch between the information displayed on Liminal’s interface and what was actually signed. We suspect the payload was replaced to transfer wallet control to an attacker.”
Based in Mumbai, WazirX is one of India’s leading crypto exchanges. As of its most recent financial disclosure in June, the company had more than $500m in reserves.
Now, with nearly half of the reserves wiped out, WazirX has announced what it describes as a “fair and transparent socialised loss strategy” that will distribute the impact of the cyberattack across all users “equitably”.
“By socialising the loss, we ensure fairness across our user base and preserve the exchange’s stability,” the company wrote in a statement. “This approach balances quick access for some with potential recovery for others, aiming to resolve the situation more efficiently than traditional proceedings.”
WazirX said its 55/45 approach is more flexible and allows users to immediately access a significant portion of their assets while “maintaining the possibility of further recovery for those who choose to wait”.
“Assuming these are not tokens stolen in the cyberattack, the 55pc unlocking and 45pc locking will be applied proportionally to each crypto in your portfolio,” it wrote.
This means that if, for example, a user holds a mix of bitcoin, XRP and other tokens, 55pc of each token’s value will be unlocked to the user while 45p of each will be converted to USDT-equivalent tokens. Users can submit their choice to the company by 3 August.
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