The WazirX hacker has moved $57 million worth of stolen funds to two new cryptocurrency addresses in the latest on-chain movement of the stolen assets.
Specifically, the hacker transferred 16,350 Ether (ETH), valued at over $57 million, to two new crypto wallets. The majority of the funds, over $54 million, were sent to the address “0x58d,” according to a July 22 post on X by blockchain security firm PeckShield.The unidentified hacker who stole over $230 million from WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange, has orchestrated the second-largest cryptocurrency hack of 2024 to date. The on-chain movement of these stolen funds may reveal crucial details about the hacker’s identity.
The unidentified hacker who stole over $230 million from WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange, has orchestrated the second-largest cryptocurrency hack of 2024 to date. The on-chain movement of these stolen funds may reveal crucial details about the hacker’s identity.
WazirX Expands Bounty Program with Increased Rewards
To aid in tracking the stolen funds, WazirX has introduced two bounty programs for on-chain investigators.
The first program, the Track and Freeze Bounty, offers up to $10,000 in Tether (USDT) for actionable intelligence that leads to freezing the stolen assets.
The second program, the White Hat Recovery Bounty, rewards ethical hackers with up to 10% of the value they help recover. Following community feedback, WazirX has increased the upper limit of this bounty to $23 million. According to a WazirX spokesperson, “The bounty was doubled to $23 million based on community input.” Currently, 54 white hat hackers have registered for the recovery program.
Malicious actors often convert stolen funds into Ether to prepare for laundering, as ETH lacks built-in freezing mechanisms. This may explain why the WazirX hacker converted $149 million worth of altcoins into Ether last week.
A rough week for crypto: WazirX hack and Rho Markets exploit hit the industry hard
The $230 million WazirX hack struck during a particularly turbulent week for the cryptocurrency sector, which faced a wave of malicious activities.
Shortly after the WazirX theft, Rho Markets suffered an exploit, losing nearly $8 million in digital assets when an unauthorized individual accessed the protocol’s blockchain oracle.
In a positive development, the Scroll-based liquidity layer and lending protocol announced that all stolen funds were returned, and Rho Markets is now back online. The protocol clarified that the loss resulted from a maximal extractable value bot exploiting a price oracle misconfiguration, which then returned all the funds.
Lastly, players of the viral Telegram-based clicker game Hamster Kombat were targeted by phishing attacks and fake airdrops, which aimed to steal player credentials and cryptocurrency wallets.
