Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX has just fallen victim to a serious cyber attack, resulting in approximately $235 million in cryptocurrency stolen from the Safe Multisig multi-signature wallet on Ethereum.

Security firm Web3 Cyvers detected “multiple suspicious transactions” related to WazirX's Safe Multisig wallet on Ethereum on July 18. According to the post on X (formerly Twitter), about $234.9 million in Indian cryptocurrency exchange Safe Multisig wallet has been moved to a new address. Every transaction is made through Tornado Cash, a decentralized protocol for anonymous transactions.

The receiving address quickly converted the stolen assets, including Tether (USDT), Pepe (PEPE), and Gala (GALA), to Ether (ETH). The primary attacker’s address is believed to still hold over $104 million, primarily Shiba Inu (SHIB) worth around $100 million, $52 million ETH, and $11 million Polygon (MATIC). It also contains $4.7 million FLOKI, $3.2 million Fantom (FTM), $2.8 million Chainlink (LINK), $2.3 million Fetch.ai (FET), and the remaining funds are distributed across a variety of other tokens.

In response to the incident, WazirX has suspended crypto and INR withdrawals on its platform. On the official X account, the WazirX team said that they are investigating the incident and will update users with the latest information.

The attack on WazirX is a wake-up call for cryptocurrency exchanges about the importance of ensuring cybersecurity, especially as cyberattacks become increasingly sophisticated.

In recent months, many other cryptocurrency platforms have also been targeted by hackers. These include the attack on Atomic Wallet that cost users more than $35 million in June 2023, or the attack exploiting a vulnerability on the DeFi protocol Euler Finance that cost users up to $196 million in March 2023.

These incidents show that, despite the promise of explosive growth, the cryptocurrency market still has many potential security risks. Exchanges need to continuously improve their security systems, while users also need to be vigilant and equip themselves with knowledge to protect their assets.

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