Indian exchange WazirX hit by $235 million hack, North Korea link suspected

Blockchain information steadfast Cyvers Alert reported that the Indian speech WazirX was exploited for astir $235 million.

Cyvers stated:

“Our strategy has detected aggregate suspicious transactions involving [WazirX’s] Safe Multisig wallet connected the ETH network. A full of $234.9M of your funds person been moved to a caller address. Each transaction’s caller is funded by Tornado Cash.”

Blockchain expert Lookonchain reported that the stolen assets included 5.43 trillion SHIB tokens (worth $102 million), 15,298 ETH (valued astatine $52.5 million), 20.5 cardinal MATIC (worth $11.24 million), 640.27 cardinal $PEPE (worth $7.6 million), 5.79 cardinal USDT, and 135 cardinal GALA (worth $3.5 million).

It added that the attacker was selling and converting those assets to ETH.

In a July 18 post connected X, the crypto trading level confirmed that 1 of its multisig wallets experienced a information breach that resulted successful losing an undisclosed sum.

The steadfast added:

“Our squad is actively investigating the incident. To guarantee the information of your assets, INR and crypto withdrawals volition beryllium temporarily paused.”

WazirX is 1 of the largest crypto trading platforms successful India. Last year, the steadfast was progressive successful a public spat implicit its ownership structure, with WazirX’s founder, Nischal Shetty, insisting that Binance had acquired the exchange. However, Binance’s erstwhile CEO, Changpeng Zhao, vehemently denied these claims.

North Korea link

Meanwhile, Cyvers suggested that North Korea-backed hacker Group Lazarus mightiness beryllium progressive successful the attack.

Deddy Lavid, the Co-founder & CEO of Cyvers Alert, told CryptoSlate:

“The usage of TornadoCash to money the transactions is indicative of methods utilized successful erstwhile high-profile attacks. While it is excessively aboriginal to definitively nexus this incidental to the Lazarus Group, the similarities are concerning.”

Over the past fewer years, Lazarus Group has emerged arsenic 1 of the astir notorious hacking groups targeting the crypto industry. A Chainalysis report estimated that the North Korean hackers person stolen implicit $3 cardinal successful the past 5 years.

The station Indian speech WazirX deed by $235 cardinal hack, North Korea nexus suspected appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.