Wazirx CEO Rebute Allegations of Moving $75 Million Customers’ Funds
WazirX continues to grapple with the aftermath of the $230 million hack, as CoinSwitch claims the exchange moved $75 million worth of crypto assets without notifying users.
CoinSwitch allegedly accused WazirX of transferring $75 million worth of crypto assets to two major exchanges without informing users.
The accusations arose after Coinswitch CEO, Singhal claimed they discovered that the company had moved a large amount of crypto to several major exchanges while his team was going through the provided data, in the aftermath of the hacking incident.
Coinswitch Allegations Triggers Chaos
The allegations come after the Mumbai-based crypto platform disclosed more than 240,000 wallet addresses as part of the requirements of a four-month moratorium granted to it by a Singapore court following the $235 million hack in July.
CoinSwitch CEO Ashish Singhal announced in an X post that his team had developed a system to simplify the process of reviewing the extensive information provided to the exchange users.
He further noted that his firm’s interest in the WazirX matter stems from the fact that it holds the Indian rupee and virtual digital assets (VDA) with the exchange platform.
In the subsequent part of the post, he then added,
“We have observed a large chunk of Wazirx crypto has been moved to exchanges such as Bybit and Kucoin post the incident. As of now, we have identified the movement of $ 72.13 mn worth of crypto to Bybit and $ 1.5 mn funds to Kucoin.” seemingly accusing Warizx of not being open with its customers and secretly moving funds for trading purposes.
Coinswitch is currently pursuing legal action against the exchange to recover the funds used in compensating customers.
Warizx CEO Explains Situation
Following the accusations, WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty took to his X page to explain the situation.
He called the claims a “false narrative” and a “coordinated campaign,” denying that any “secret” movement of funds had occurred as reported by the press.
A security breach on July 18, 2024, stole approximately $230 million worth of users’ crypto assets from the company, making it one of the largest crypto exchange thefts ever recorded and resulting in the loss of 45% of the exchange’s total assets.
The firm co-founder Nischal Shetty and financial advisors have since indicated that users may only recover up to 57% of their assets, with losses estimated at around $102 million.
Even despite offering a $23 million bounty for actionable intelligence leading to the freezing of the stolen funds, the crypto trading site has yet to recover any of the money stolen in the July attack.
