WazirX To Start Indian Rupee Withdrawals But Keep Users Crypto Frozen

WazirX To Start Indian Rupee Withdrawals But Keep Users Crypto Frozen

Starting on Monday, WazirX users will be able to make withdrawals of about two-thirds of their Indian Rupees (INR) from the platform.

This is almost one month after the Indian crypto exchange experienced a hack that saw it suffer losses worth $230 million.

The Statement

The company issued a statement in which it announced that users of the exchange would now be able to withdraw about 66% of their INR.

However, the exchange added that it would not permit crypto withdrawals from its platform for the foreseeable future.

This is because the exchange has suffered from losses in Ethereum tokens as well as other assets.

On Friday, WazirX said that the cyberattack had seen the exchange lose a significant amount of ERC-20 tokens.

Therefore, it no longer has the sufficient amount of token assets required for meeting the liabilities, considering the token balances that its users had on its platform before the hack.

Before it announced unfreezing withdrawals in INR, WazirX had also made another announcement on Wednesday.

The exchange said that all outstanding open orders had been canceled on the platform. This move was aimed at resolving issues with its account balances of users after it was hacked in the previous month.

The Hack

On July 18th, hackers had targeted the WazirX exchange and stole $230 million from the platform. In response, the exchange froze both INR and crypto withdrawals.

Mandiant, the Google cybersecurity subsidiary, revealed that the hackers had not breached the laptops of the WazirX exchange.

This resulted in speculation that the hackers had carried out the cyberattack via the multi-party computation wallet of the exchange.

However, there was no confirmation about how the hackers had actually carried out the attack.

The Response

The exchange is now planning on opening up withdrawals on the platform in stages. From August 26th to September 8th, users will be permitted to withdraw almost half of their INR.

In the next stage, the exchange will allow the users to withdraw the remainder of their INR. Between September 9th and 22nd, the users will be able to withdraw about 66% of their INR.

Since withdrawals are resuming in phases, the exchange has decided to reduce its withdrawal fee. It will charge Rs 10 for withdrawals instead of Rs 25.

But, the exchange added on Friday that it will continue holding onto one-third of the rupees of its users.

This is in light of ongoing disputes, along with the investigations currently being conducted by law enforcement agencies.

It remains unclear as to which law enforcement agencies are investigating WazirX and whether it is regarding the exploit it suffered.

WazirX has also not provided any details about the timing of when it will unfreeze the crypto holdings of its users as well as the remaining rupees.

The exchange further revealed that it is aiming for a Singapore Scheme of Arrangement. This legal process would ensure a user-approved and equitable distribution of crypto assets.

Users will have the option of voting on any restructuring proposal put forward before it goes into effect.