Hackers who stole around $230 million (Rs 2,000 crore) in crypto assets on Thursday from popular Indian crypto exchange WazirX, have sold off most of the tokens.
US headquartered blockchain intelligence company Arkham Intelligence said approximately $102.1 million in SHIB (Shiba Inu) tokens had been stolen. Most of it had been sold off.
Elliptic data, which traces Bitcoin transactions to real entities belonging to licit categories (exchanges, wallet providers, miners) versus illicit ones (scams, malware, terrorist organisations, ransomware or Ponzi schemes) revealed the breach also involved the theft of $52.6 million in cryptocurrencies Ether (ETH), $11 million of Matic, and $7.6 million of Pepe.
The native cryptocurrency of Ethereum, a decentralised global software platform, is ether (ETH). Polygon, formerly called Matic Network, has Matic, an Ethereum token that powers the Polygon Network, which aims to provide faster and cheaper transactions on Ethereum using Layer 2 sidechains, which are blockchains that run alongside the Ethereum main chain.
Pepe is a digital asset and meme-based cryptocurrency that was launched on the Ethereum blockchain in April 2023.
Till last reports came in the hacker had converted most of the stolen assets into 43,800 ETH, valued at $149.46 million and was holding 59,097 ETH, worth $201.67 million.
About 7.7 million DENT, valued at $7,300, was also deposited in a Binance deposit address that had not been used before.
As of now the involvement of the dreaded North Korean Lazarus group in the hack is suspected.
Arkham Intelligence has offered a bounty rewarding anyone who can identify a KYC-linked centralised exchange deposit, reveal the identity of the hacker or uncover any information that helps in the return of the stolen funds.
Cyvers Alert, a security firm, sounded the alarm early on Thursday, saying a suspicious address withdrew approximately $235 million worth of crypto assets from WazirX’s multisig wallet - such wallets add an extra layer of security to transactions and require multiple keys to be opened.
The transfer could not be detected as the hacker used Tornado Cash, a privacy-enhancing tool.
In a post on X, Wazir said it was "aware that one of our multisig wallets has experienced a security breach. Our team is actively investigating the incident. To ensure the safety of your assets, INR and crypto withdrawals will be temporarily paused."
The exchange said it had "opened up a secluded website to revoke all approvals," warning investors that their funds were at risk until they revoked.
The stolen assets represent more than 45 per cent of the total reserves reported by WazirX as of June 2024, with little hope of the user funds being recovered.
Follow us
