WazirX Hack Update: The Hackers Use Tornado Cash to Transfer Stolen Assets Amid Singapore Restructuring
As officials seek to assign blame amidst a continuing restructuring in Singapore, stolen assets from the troubled Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX are still in transfer. Early on Thursday, 5,000 Ether were transferred to the privacy service Tornado Cash by the hackers responsible for the $230 million attack on WazirX in July. Since Monday night, they have transferred 15,000 Ether in batches of 5,000, according to data monitored by the on-chain tool Arkham. The hacker’s wallet was still holding more than $50 million worth of tokens, mostly Ether, as of Thursday morning.
WazirX Founder Nischal Shetty Shifts Blame for July Hack, Binance Denies Involvement
A security compromise in one of WazirX‘s multisig wallets occurred in July, draining from the exchange of nearly $100 million in Shiba Inu (SHIB) and $52 million in Ether, among other assets. The exchange reported in June 2024 that the stolen cash made up more than 45% of its total reserves. In order to pay off its obligations, the exchange has subsequently applied for a restructuring procedure.
During the restructuring phase, Nischal Shetty, the founder of WazirX, repeatedly changed the blame. They first claimed that the hack may have occurred as a result of a mistake made by custodian Liminal, an allegation that Liminal denied. Late in August, Shetty claimed that WazirX parent company Zettai Labs’ majority of the money was kept by cryptocurrency exchange Binance, preventing the former from paying back impacted consumers from its records. However, earlier this week, Binance refuted the allegations in a blog post.
The WazirX team and Nischal Shetty continue to mislead WazirX customers and the market regarding the relationship between WazirX and Binance. Binance has not owned, controlled, or operated WazirX at any time, including before, during, or after the July 2024 attack. Their attempts to shift responsibility is a disappointing deflection tactic, but it should not distract anyone from the glaring issue to be addressed here: the need for the WazirX team to be held accountable for user funds lost under their management,
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