New Delhi: Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX experienced a security breach, leading to a temporary suspension of all withdrawals.
Reportedly, one of its wallets transferred approximately $230 million to an alternate address.
Cyvers, a Web3 security firm, reported on social media platform X (previously known as Twitter) that a suspicious address had been involved in the exchange of virtual digital assets and continued to transfer other digital assets. WazirX has confirmed the security breach and temporarily halted customer withdrawals.
The company issued a statement saying, “We are aware that one of our multisig wallets has been compromised. Our team is actively investigating the incident. To ensure the safety of your assets, both INR and crypto withdrawals have been temporarily suspended.”
Sumit Gupta, the co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX, assured users that their assets are secure, stating, “In response to the recent WazirX breach, we wish to reassure all CoinDCX users that your assets are secure and unaffected. Our wallet security remains strong.”
This security breach follows several months after the finance ministry issued show cause notices to nine offshore virtual digital assets (VDA) service providers involved with cryptocurrency assets.
Last December, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Finance Ministry sent show-cause notices to VDA platforms such as Binance and Kucoin for failing to comply with anti-money laundering laws and requested the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block their websites.
Domestic cryptocurrency firms have indicated they are working on establishing a channel to allow investors with holdings in offshore exchanges to transfer their investments to domestic platforms.