Crypto Exchange WazirX Temporarily Halts Trading Service Amid Exploit Craze

In a sudden and alarming development within the Indian cryptocurrency market, WazirX, the nation’s largest digital asset exchange has temporarily suspended its trading services following a recent hack incident faced by the platform in the prior week. This action was necessary in response to the hack on the exchange, which has a sizable user base and is essential to the nation’s developing cryptocurrency industry.

WazirX Puts Crypto Trading Services On Hold

Last week, the India-based crypto exchange WazirX became the latest victim of a cyber attack, which has become a major discussion within the crypto community. The incident is believed to be linked with the famous North Korean hackers known as Lazarus Group.

According to the exchange, the hackers targeted one of its multi-sig wallets, leading to the loss of millions of digital assets. Data from on-chain tracker Cyvers Alerts revealed that the criminals stole over $235 million involving major digital assets like Shiba Inu, Ethereum, PEPE, and GALA, among others. However, the exchange has acted quickly to protect the funds of its users by halting its trading activities as a result of the breach, which has caused major concerns about the security of digital assets on the platform.

WazirX noted that the cyberattack theft had affected the platform’s capacity to keep its 1:1 collaterals with assets, which is why the trading services were suspended in order to prevent more damage. It is worth noting that the team also suspended withdrawals last week after the platform was attacked so as to protect its user’s funds. “Our team is actively investigating the incident. To ensure the safety of your assets, INR and crypto withdrawals will be temporarily paused,” the team stated.

Even though the team has temporarily paused trading services and withdrawals on the platform, they have highlighted their commitment to carrying out extensive forensic data examination and security audit procedures to quickly facilitate withdrawals.

In the meantime, the platform intends to restore customer assets, track down the embezzled funds, and carry out a more thorough investigation of the cyberattack. Thus the crypto platform has filed a complaint to the police, reached out to over 500 exchanges to block the hacker’s address, and initiated a bounty program to retrieve the stolen assets.

Fake Reimbursement Plan Email From The Cybercriminals

WazirX crypto trading suspension comes after receiving multiple complaints from its users about an ongoing scam Email from impersonators, implying to reimburse victims of their stolen funds through an airdrop strategy. 

The scam mail indicates that the criminals are still actively targeting WazirX users. Therefore, the team has urged users to remain vigilant in times like these, as the criminals could devise more ways to target users while they aggressively track and deal with these fraudulent operations.

Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com