Hackers steal $235 million from India's largest crypto exchange

India's largest crypto exchange WazirX was subjected to a large-scale cyber-attack, because of which hackers stole about 235 million dollars. The exchange confirmed the incident and temporarily stopped the withdrawal of funds, TechCrunch website reports.

According to experts, the attackers withdrew money in USDT and GALA stablecoins, as well as SHIB and PEPE memecoins. Representatives of the risk management platform Elliptic suggested that the hackers may be connected to North Korea.

WazirX clarified that the problem may be related to the Liminal crypto wallet used on the platform. However, Liminal claimed a wallet created outside of their ecosystem had been compromised. A representative of the company emphasized that their platform was not hacked and its infrastructure, wallets and assets remain safe.

The source notes that this case could become one of the biggest cyber attacks on cryptocurrency exchanges in 2024. In May, a group of hackers stole 4,502 bitcoins worth $305 million from the Japanese DMM Bitcoin exchange. As a result, the exchange had to ask for help from its partners to compensate the losses of the affected users.

NEWS.am Tech reported earlier that in the first half of 2024, hackers stole $1.38 billion worth of cryptocurrency using various means, which is twice as much as compared to the same period last year. About 70% of all cryptocurrencies stolen by cybercriminals came from the top five attacks. As in previous years, a significant portion of all funds were stolen in a small number of major incidents.