Hackers responsible for the July breach of WazirX have moved approximately ₹200 crore worth of Ethereum in just two days, severely diminishing the chances of recovering the stolen funds. Using Tornado Cash—a service notorious for obscuring the trail of illicit transactions—the hackers laundered 10,000 Ethereum, or ₹197.68 crore, between September 17 and 19, complicating efforts for legal recovery, particularly in Singapore, where legal proceedings for Indian users have made little progress.
On September 19, on-chain data from Etherscan revealed that the address “0x46b9d..” executed 50 transactions of 100 Ether each, along with one major transfer of 5,001 Ether. A similar pattern was observed on September 17 from the address “0x5990c7..”, with 50 transactions of 100 Ether.
Since Monday, the hackers have shifted a total of 15,000 Ether, although their wallet still holds more than $50 million worth of tokens, mostly Ethereum. The use of Tornado Cash, while legal, is a preferred tool for crypto criminals aiming to mask the origin of their assets, making the trail cold for investigators.
The WazirX hack, which took place in July 2024, targeted the platform’s multisignature wallet and resulted in the theft of over $100 million in Shiba Inu (SHIB) and $52 million in Ethereum, among other assets. These stolen funds constitute nearly 45% of WazirX’s total reserves, as reported earlier in June 2024. The exchange has since been undergoing restructuring to address its liabilities following the massive breach.
WazirX co-founder Nischal Shetty has pointed fingers at several parties throughout this period of financial recovery. Initially, he accused custodian Liminal of security failures, a claim Liminal swiftly denied. In August, Shetty claimed that Binance, which he said controlled a large portion of WazirX parent Zettai Labs’ funds, was hindering compensation for customers affected by the hack. Binance has since denied these allegations in a recent blog post.
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