Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX was granted a four-month moratorium on September 26 based on certain conditions. The request was granted by a Singapore court following the company’s plea for a six-month moratorium after it lost $234 million in a hack—nearly 45% of its customers’ funds.
The breach, which occurred earlier in July 2024, saw the crypto exchange lose approximately $230 million in assets suspiciously transferred from its platform’s Liminal multi-sig wallets. WazirX’s legal advisors had previously claimed that customers are unlikely to receive lost funds. The platform itself had adopted a socialised loss strategy to “distribute the impact equitably among all users.”
However, WazirX’s relief is conditional at best. The court has ruled that the platform needs to reveal the addresses of its wallets through a court affidavit, respond to user queries about the hack, reveal its book of accounts within six weeks, and ensure that any future voting is conducted on an independent platform.
Meanwhile, the hacker behind the attack, believed to originate from the DPRK, has almost finished laundering the stolen crypto, using Tornado Cash to hide the transactions. The hacker has slowly been moving the stolen funds through the crypto washer, throwing a wrench in the platform’s recovery efforts. Data from Arkham Intelligence shows that only around six million worth of crypto is left to be laundered from the attacker’s wallet.
Coindesk reports an industry source claiming the judge stated that the exchange acted in good faith by seeking a moratorium. Nischal Shetty, the exchange’s founder also issued a statement saying “our immediate filing for the moratorium was a decisive step taken to ensure the fastest, fairest, creditor-approved, legally binding path to resolution where creditors have a token choice and potential upside in a bull run.”
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