Cryptocurrency

WazirX Seeks Help From FIU-IND And FBI To Recover Stolen $230 Million

The crypto exchange is attempting to speed up the recovery process of funds and the reopening of activity following the enormous cyberattack

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WazirX Seeks Help From FIU-IND And FBI To Recover Stolen $230 Million
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WazirX, whose $230 million was purloined in a cyberattack on 19 July, collaborates with India's FIU, the Financial Intelligence Unit, and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in search of the money. According to Nischal Shetty, founder and chief executive of WazirX, "We have filed a police complaint, and we are in touch with the FIU-IND and the FBI on this matter." Roughly 45% of the cryptocurrency assets stored on the site were lost as a result of the attack.

Cryptocurrency platforms in India have to mandatorily register with the FIU-IND. It investigates financial crimes like money laundering. Shetty said that tracing the exit points of the stolen tokens was vital to freeze the funds in quick time with the help of the FBI's extensive reach.

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WazirX suspended all forms of trading and withdrawals to cease further deterioration. The platform announced a rather controversial plan for "socializing the losses" by spreading the financial impact of the hack across all of its users, whether affected or not. This move has been condemned by a number of its users and rivals alike.

Sumit Gupta, the co-founder of CoinDCX, termed the WazirX strategy as "utter nonsense." He added that WazirX should bear losses from its treasury and assets rather than passing them on to the users.

Shetty said it would distribute the losses amongst the users and speed up the pace of getting services back on the platform. To the best of his knowledge, most insolvencies last for an average of five to ten years. WazirX wants to avoid this huge delay in processes.

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WazirX created a vote for the Preferred Recovery Strategy. The voting will close on the 3rd of August. Other ways that would bind the platform to replace the lost funds from future profits, new projects, and other potential investors were further sought.

"When working on this recovery process, we'll look at the profit of the exchange, future revenues, new programs we launch in terms of a new project where we can create tokens, or a potential investor comes in," he said.

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