WazirX files FIR concerning stolen crypto assets worth $234M
After being hacked last month, crypto exchange WazirX has temporarily paused withdrawals and trading on its platform.
WazirX has filed a first information report (FIR) in New Delhi in the aftermath of a security breach involving its Safe Multisig wallet, which resulted in the theft of $234 million of crypto assets last month.
Regarding the delay in filing the FIR, WazirX Founder and CEO Nischal Shetty said on X, “Now before conspiracy theorists come forward, let me clarify that we had filed a police complaint next day of the cyberattack and had already made the announcement to everyone that police complaint has been filed. It generally takes time for FIR after filing of the complaint. Just like all our customers, we too want the culprits of this theft to be caught and the funds recovered.”
The July cyberattack drew widespread attention and scrutiny after the company unveiled plans to “socialise” the loss among all its customers. The exchange had proposed a 55:45 approach, which would see customers absorbing 45% of the losses caused by the hack.
Sumit Gupta, Co-founder of WazirX’s biggest competitor, CoinDCX, took to X to express his concerns about the latter's strategy, adding that these measures also hurt other participants in the ecosystem.
However, it was reported that WazirX has since abandoned the plan.
On July 22, the company offered a bounty of up to $23 million to recover the stolen digital assets, inviting white hat hackers, blockchain forensics experts, and cybersecurity professionals globally to assist in the recovery efforts.
It ran a poll from July 27 to August 3 to determine the steps after the heist. WazirX clarified that the poll was a preliminary step in understanding its users' opinions and was not legally binding.
According to a report by Moneycontrol citing industry sources, the exchange had approached its former partner Binance to help bail out customers affected by the cyberattack.
Edited by Kanishk Singh