WazirX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in India, has “temporarily” suspended all trading activity on its platform, days after a security breach caused it to lose roughly $230 million, nearly half of its reserves.
The Mumbai-based exchange said in a tweet on Sunday evening that the cyberattack had significantly impaired its ability to maintain the crucial 1:1 collateral ratio with its assets, raising further concerns about the adequacy of WazirX's reserves and its ability to repay customers in full.
WazirX suspended customer withdrawals earlier this week after an attacker gained access to one of the exchange's multi-signature wallets, which held hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crypto assets. The affected WazirX wallet was secured by six signatories, five of whom were members of the WazirX team.
“The cyber attack arose from a discrepancy between the data displayed in Liminal's interface and the actual content of the transactions,” the company said in a statement earlier this week.
WazirX announced early Sunday morning that it was offering a reward of up to $23 million to anyone who helps recover the stolen assets.
Risk management platform Elliptic said earlier this week that its analysis found the attackers had ties to North Korea.
The loss of roughly $230 million in assets is significant for WazirX, which reported holdings of roughly $500 million in a June reserve disclosure. The exchange called the security breach a “force majeure event.”
Indian exchanges CoinSwitch and CoinDCX, which both partner with WazirX for some of their services, said earlier this week that their customers were not affected by the WazirX attack.