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The hackers that siphoned millions from the WazirX Indian cryptocurrency exchange moved about $6.5 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) stolen from the platform, according to new data.
The news follows a recent report that WazirX customers are unlikely to recover the full value of their crypto holdings in the ongoing restructuring process. The company lost $234 million in the hack back in July.
Ethereum transaction data from Etherscan shows that the exploiter moved 2,600 ETH — worth about $6.5 million — on Monday (Sep, 2). The funds were moved onto United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)-sanctioned decentralized cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash (TORN).
What is Tornado Cash?
Cryptocurrency mixers are systems used by privacy-seeking users to break the link allowing for funds to be traced from one address to another. In the case of Tornado Cash the system is decentralized and the entity was sanctioned by United States regulators — largely due to usage by criminals and DPRK-linked actors.
When the U.S. OFAC announced its sanctions on the entity, the regulator claimed that it “has been used to launder more than $7 billion worth of virtual currency since its creation in 2019.” Still, no government agency has been able to stop the decentralized service from operating so far.
The correct identification of the transfers as originating from the WazirX exploiter was further confirmed by a Sept. 3 report by crypto cybersecurity firm PeckShield. The company highlighted that its systems — like Etherscan’s — had the address labeled as being controlled by the WazirX drainer.
#PeckShieldAlert #WazirX Exploiter -labeled address has transferred 2600.1 $ETH (worth ~$6.5M) to #Tornadocash within the last 9 hours
On July 18, India's #CEX WazirX suffered a major security breach, resulting in the theft of over $230 million in cryptos. pic.twitter.com/0QeKkleUyb— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) September 3, 2024
Furthermore, data from blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence shows that the WazirX drainer carried out 26 transactions transferring 100 ETH to Tornado Cash each. The fund movement followed WazirX’s first “Townhall” meeting, discussing its application for a moratorium to restructure its activity. The company wrote:
“A moratorium provides breathing space while Zettai progresses with a restructuring, which represents the most efficient way to address users’ cryptocurrency balances on the Platform and facilitate recovery for users.”
