WazirX
HackedExchange · $WRX · born 2018 · ✝ 2024
India's largest crypto exchange, gutted by a $235M multisig heist.
WazirX was India's leading crypto exchange until July 2024, when North Korea's Lazarus Group drained ~$235M from a multisig custody wallet operated with Liminal Custody. Trading halted for over a year as users fought over loss-sharing.
- Peak
- ~$500M in reserves (pre-hack)
- Cause
- Hacked
- Year of death
- 2024
☠️ Cause of death
Attackers altered the smart contract behind a multisig wallet during a routine signing session, bypassing WazirX keys entirely. The exchange froze withdrawals, reset balances, and pursued a Singapore court restructuring that returned ~85% of funds when trading resumed in October 2025.
📓 Lessons left behind
- —Multisig is only as safe as the UI and contract-upgrade path.
- —Custody blame games don't recover stolen funds.
- —Exchange hacks can socialise losses across every user on the platform.
🌱 The idea that survived
Institutional-grade custody
Post-hack, WazirX migrated to BitGo and other qualified custodians — the model survivors now market as table stakes.