WazirX reports 80 bounty intentions within first 24 hours: details

WazirX, which recently launched a bounty initiative worth $23 million (approximately Rs. 192 crore), hopes to trace its stolen funds of over $230 million (approximately Rs. 1,924 crore) through third-party programmers and hackers. The exchange noted in an update shared on X that it received 80 submissions for its bounty initiative within the first 24 hours of the program’s launch. The exchange is inviting members of the Indian tech community to help recover as much of the stolen funds as possible. WazirX has also roped in law enforcement agencies and India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to identify the hacker and attempt to recover funds.

As part of the update on X, WazirX said: “We urgently need more support from our ecosystem, security professionals, and ethical hackers.”

from WazirX premium program is offering USDT worth $10,000 (approximately Rs. 8.3 lakh) to those who can help identify and freeze the stolen funds. Meanwhile, WazirX has also called on the hacker to return the funds in exchange for his White Hat reward worth $23 million (approximately Rs. 192 crore).

WazirX’s bounty program will last for three months. In the meantime, Shetty has asked the wider crypto community for support to help recover assets.

The crypto community of India, and especially the users of WazirX, have been on edge ever since this rather sophisticated hack attack that took place on July 18. One multi-sig wallet of WazirX, which was guarded by Liminal Custody, was compromised by the hacker, leading to a huge financial loss.

Since then, WazirX has suspended deposit and withdrawal services. Later, the exchange also stopped trading on its platform.

Speaking to Gadgets360 earlier this week, users of the app sought clarity on the timeline around which WazirX plans to resume withdrawals. The app users fear seeing losses at a time when crypto is witnessing a bull run and Bitcoin is trading at a high price of $66,433 (roughly Rs. 55.5 lakh).

The exchange listened to its users and answered their questions via a short message on X.

The exchange’s co-founder Nischal Shetty also said that users will be notified about the restart of withdrawal services once the details are finalized.

Industry analysts suspect the notorious North Korean Lazarus Group of carrying out this attack. However, there is no confirmation.