#wazirX #CryptoNewss #CryptoDawar #cyberattacks #CyberSafety

BENGALURU: Crypto exchange WazirX, in a virtual conference on Monday stressed that tracking and recovering stolen crypto assets is a top priority for the exchange.

WazirX, which is pursuing a restructuring of crypto balances which will take at least six months, filed a moratorium application in Singapore Court and as part of the restructuring, aims to engage with a white knight to provide capital and pursue partnerships and collaborations.

The cyberattack on July 18 resulted in a large volume of ERC-20 tokens being stolen. About Rs 2,000 crore worth of user funds were lost.

Last month, Google subsidiary Mandiant Solutions provided a clean chit to the crypto exchange, but digital assets security firm Liminal Custody questioned the scope and methodology of the audit.

When asked about it, Nischal Shetty, WaxirX Founder and CEO told TNIE. "It's just three laptops that we used for accessing the liminal website. Our infrastructure was not impacted or involved in this process. We gave the entire laptop image and data to the forensic team, we have even provided this to the right authorities."

He added that there is nothing beyond the laptop image that exists with us since nothing else on our end was used for accessing the Liminal website except these three laptops.

George Gwee, director of restructuring at Kroll and Jason Kardachi, MD of Kroll, also addressed the conference. Kroll is the financial advisor and according to them, customers will receive returns of 55 per cent to 57 per cent of the funds. This means, 43 per cent of the money would not be able to recover.

However, Shetty added that they are in the negotiation and the ideation stage. The exchange also has an ownership dispute with Binance. While Zanmai India operates WazirX, Zettai is Singapore-incorporated, and it has applied for a moratorium.

The exchange also explained that restructuring is not insolvency, liquidation or bankruptcy. It is a plan to distribute assets to users in a pro-rata, equitable way, and in crypto (not fiat); and it allows users who need liquidity urgently to withdraw crypto more quickly and not exit the restructuring.

Since Zanmai was not affected by the cyberattack, the platform reopened INR withdrawals up to a limit of 66 per cent. The remaining INR are frozen due to ongoing disputes, and investigations by various Indian Law Enforcement Agencies and will be made available for withdrawal as and when they are unfrozen, the crypto exchange informed.