The attacker behind India’s worst
crypto hack
has begun laundering some of the $234 million stolen in the incident from the
WazirX exchange
, acting the same day the platform briefed on efforts to recover funds.
The perpetrator on Monday moved 2,500 Ether tokens worth about $6.3 million to
Tornado Cash
— a sanctioned service that blurs the origin of cryptoassets — soon after the briefing led by WazirX’s Dubai-based founder Nischal Shetty.
Blockchain intelligence firm
Arkham Intelligence
highlighted the flows, which underline the difficulty of recovering the digital assets. Over 4 million users have been impacted by a hack that threatens to erode confidence in domestic Indian crypto exchanges, which were already stunted by a transaction tax.
Details about the vulnerability in July’s incident and the attacker’s identity remain unconfirmed. Blockchain specialists Elliptic see a trail to hackers linked to North Korea, which uses cyberattacks to obtain foreign income.
“Some of the best researchers in the industry are telling that the pattern exactly matches” with a North Korean connection, Shetty said in the briefing, which also flagged that users are likely to see a maximum recovery of 57% of the crypto lost.
WazirX’s parent Zettai Pte has begun restructuring proceedings in Singapore. A two-year-old dispute with Binance, the world’s largest digital-asset exchange, about who actually owns
WazirX
all but rules out a white-knight investor.
Aggrieved customers in India have thronged social media to vent their frustration. At the same time, a record-breaking domestic stock market rally is grabbing the investment spotlight.
