WazirX, one of India’s largest crypto exchanges, announced its plan to restart operations on October 24, following a crippling security breach in July 2024 that resulted in over $230 million in losses.
The exchange’s return to the market signals the successful conclusion of a complex, 16-month restructuring and recovery process.
The path to relaunch
The hack, which involved a security breach of a digital wallet, had forced WazirX to suspend trading and withdrawals, leaving hundreds of thousands of Indian investors with locked funds. The exchange pursued its post-hack restructuring through the High Court of Singapore—a decision that initially drew criticism from users but ultimately provided a clear legal path for resolution. The restructuring scheme, which was voted on and approved by a majority of creditors in two separate rounds, paved the way for the exchange to rebalance tokens and prepare for a phased relaunch.
On October 23, WazirX founder Nischal Shetty confirmed that the ‘funds’ page with rebalanced tokens was live, and both crypto and Indian Rupee (INR) deposits were open. Crucially, crypto trading and withdrawals were slated to resume on October 24.
Focus on security and customer re-engagement
To regain customer trust and enhance security, WazirX announced a partnership with BitGo, a world-class institutional custodian, to add an “additional layer of trust and protection” with world-class custody standards. The relaunch will begin in a phased manner, starting with some crypto pairs and the USDT/INR pair, before expanding to additional markets. As a re-engagement offer, the exchange is launching with 0% trading fees across all trading pairs.
While the restart brings relief, the immediate focus for many long-waiting users is to withdraw their locked funds and ascertain the final value of their holdings after the extensive restructuring. The event serves as a high-profile reminder of the importance of secure, transparent, and compliant custody in the digital asset space, especially for exchanges serving massive, rapidly adopting markets like India.