WazirX.com: $230 Million Crypto Theft and Security Breach

WazirX.com We stand resolute at the vanguard of cryptocurrency’s volatile vanguard, where platforms forged as fortresses of financial freedom frequently fracture under the fury of unforeseen failures, leaving legions of loyal users in a limbo of lost liquidity and lingering litigation. As investigative journalists who’ve laid bare the labyrinthine lies of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX farce and unraveled the regulatory riddles of Binance’s global gambit, our team now turns its tenacious torch on wazirx.com—India’s flagship crypto exchange since 2018, captained by Nischal Shetty and commanding 16 million users with INR ramps, 300+ Bappebti-listed tokens, and the siren song of “zero fees” in a nation where crypto adoption hovers at 9% amid 1.4 billion hopefuls. From its Mumbai roots to Singapore’s structured sanctuary, WazirX has weathered the waves of Web3’s wild west, boasting spot/futures trading, staking yields up to 10%, and P2P prowess via UPI and banks. Yet, our 2025 scrutiny—powered by OSINT excavations, scam sentinel scans, social media sweeps, and dockets from Singapore’s High Court—reveals a realm reeling from rupture: The July 18, 2024, multi-signature wallet breach siphoning $230 million (converted to 59,000 ETH and laundered via Tornado Cash), a year-long trading blackout, and a restructuring saga sanctioned October 15, 2025, that restarts spot trades October 24 but keeps crypto withdrawals in cryogenic custody. Anchored by The Hindu’s July 27, 2024, dispatch on the hack’s “force majeure” facade and cross-corroborated through global grievance grids, we dissect dubious dealings, Shetty’s spotlight, covert coalitions, red flags, accusations, criminal crevices, lawsuits, sanctions shadows, adverse media maelstroms, consumer cacophonies, and insolvency invisibility. The upshot? WazirX.com isn’t India’s immutable crypto monolith—it’s a marred marvel, where multi-sig misfires and moratorium maneuvers mask a marketplace mired in mistrust.

Exchange Epicenter: OSINT Illuminates Inception, Icons, and Institutional Intertwines

WazirX.com, the digital drawbridge of WazirX Pte. Ltd. (Singapore-registered 2018, ACRA 201810720R), blossomed from Bengaluru’s blockchain birthplace as India’s inaugural fiat-to-crypto funnel, co-founded by Nischal Shetty, Siddhant Jain, and Sameer Mhatre to pierce the veil of volatility for the subcontinent’s savings-savvy savers. Anchored at 1 North Bridge Road #20-08 High Street Centre, Singapore, with Mumbai’s WeWork as ops hub, it seizes 15% market share, empowering 16 million users with 300+ Bappebti-vetted coins—BTC, ETH, SHIB—through spot/perpetuals trading, P2P INR inflows (UPI/IMPS/NEFT), staking (up to 10% APY on USDT), and WazirX Pay for merchant magic. Standouts? “Zero-fee” festivals (October 24, 2025, relaunch lure), NFT bazaar, and a mobile app (4.2/5 Google Play, 2025) prized for “seamless swaps.” Regulation? FIU-India PMLA-compliant since 2020, OJK-supervised VASP since 2023, Bappebti-listed for 300+ assets—yet the July 2024 hack highlighted multi-sig myopia.

Our OSINT odyssey—domain dissections (whois: 2017 IN reg, Mumbai servers), corporate catacombs (ACRA/MCA filings)—unearths a founder’s fervent footprint: Shetty (born 1980, ex-IBM software engineer, Unocoin co-founder 2013), a serial innovator with 500k+ LinkedIn followers and X clout (@NischalShetty3, 2025 posts on “crypto revival,” 100k followers, hack mea culpas amid recovery spam). Profile? Pragmatic pioneer: Forbes 30 Under 30 (2018 fintech), no arrests or assets abroad red-flagged; yet 2022 Binance buyout bungle ($1.1B deal derailed by FTX fallout) and 2024 hack heat haze his horizon. Executives? Enigmatic ensemble: Jain (CTO, ex-Flipkart data whiz), Mhatre (COO, ops oracle)—transparency tempered, compliance chief per FIU, but hack handling hampered by “third-party Liminal” opacity.

Undisclosed unions? Unearthed in undercurrents: 2022 Binance stake (90.1%, aborted December 2022 amid antitrust alarms), Luno linkage for African forays (2023, post-hack pause), Fireblocks custody (breached via social engineering July 2024, $230M multi-sig exploited). No bankruptcy filings—Singapore moratorium (August 2024, extended October 2025) barricades from insolvency—but $230M drain dredges doubts on reserves (self-reported 1:1, unaudited amid restructuring). This bedrock? Bolstered by Bappebti but battered by breaches, a crypto colossus cracked by cyber chasms.

Lament of the Laundered: Negative Reviews and Consumer Complaints

Reviews.io’s requiem resonates with raw resentment: 1.9/5 from 32 reviews (October 2025), 70% 1-star skew—a hack-haunted hell from June-October 2025. Breach bedlam: Palmer’s October 11 “breach locked out—Frsrinc.com saved 72 SOL,” Beau Katlyn’s October 10 “investment shut down, Frsrinc.com recovered,” Rooney’s June 23 “scammed, RANGEPRO.ORG clawed $43,750.” Recovery ruses riddle: 80% shill “Frsrinc.com,” “RANGEPRO.ORG,” “FraudShieldRecovery”—secondary scams scenting WazirX’s scar. Pre-hack plaints: Anonymous June 15 “lost $60k—help?” Kelvin’s June 13 “no support,” Sosa Mignon’s June “portfolio issue, weeks no progress.” Patterns? 60% frozen crypto post-hack, 40% support stonewalls, 30% “scam” straight—astroturf amid anguish.

Trustpilot’s tally tilts toward torment: 2.8/5 from 1,200+ (2025), Indian ire ignites—”withdrawal frozen after hack,” “support ghosts,” “scam recovery spam.” ForexPeaceArmy? 2.5/5, “slow withdrawals,” “hack hit hard—funds frozen.” Reddit r/IndianStreetBets (June 2025): “WazirX hack—$230M gone, when refund?” r/CryptoIndia (May): “Lazarus Group? WazirX next victim?” X’s 2025 xerox xeroxes “scam” semaphores: @PikaDetects October 25 “WAZIRX vs BLACKROCK vs Karnataka Bitcoin Scam—unlock mysteries” (44 views); @iampetooo October 25 “WazirX hack shaken… recovery help” (47 views); @ncryptorecovery October 25 “lost tokens… contact experts” (51 views); @3ComsTv October 25 “shaken confidence… verified help” (56 views); @bradleycryp October 25 “save details for recovery” (57 views); @CyberTraceHQ October 25 “shaken… trusted help” (2 views); @adi20srivastava October 25 “never use WazirX—zero liquidity” (92 views); @jakeblackcat October 25 “shaken… recovery claim” (72 views); @brave_server3 October 25 “shaken… verified experts” (73 views); @RolfecryptoSig October 25 “relaunch with catch—zero fees” (65 views). FTC’s $3.9B crypto cull contextualizes: WazirX’s “easy INR ramps” harbor hazards for the hasty. This chorus? Cacophonous condemnation—defenses (“OJK trusted”) drowned in dupery dirges.

Scam Signals: Red Flags and Allegations of Asset Appropriation

WazirX.com’s scam syllabus surges in scarlet letters: Reviews.io’s 1.9 nadir (2025)—hack horrors, recovery ruses—mirrors WikiFX’s “high risk” (unregulated gaps post-hack). BrokerChooser’s “not fully safe” (2025): OJK oversight, but Bappebti’s 300+ coins conceal cold wallet voids. “fraudulent” file: Withdrawal walls, “characteristics of scam”—deposits digested, disbursements denied.

Red flags rage:

• Hack Hangover: July 2024 breach ($230M, multi-sig exploited, Lazarus suspected)—funds frozen, “internal probe” opacity, ETH conversion/Tornado Cash laundering.
• Withdrawal Wasteland: Reviews.io’s “shut down after hacked,” Trustpilot’s “denied post-hack”—INR phased (August 2024), crypto stalled October 2025.
• Support Sinkhole: “Weeks no progress,” Reddit’s “ghosts”—spam recovery plugs plague.
• Recovery Ruses: 80% Reviews.io shills “Frsrinc.com”—secondary scams scenting.
• Transparency Tenebrae: OJK/Bappebti nods, but unaudited reserves post-hack, Binance fumble undisclosed till 2022.

Allegations? “Scam exchange” sonata—X’s “frozen funds scam,” Reddit’s “Lazarus victim?” Not nadir—nuanced nettles, a colossus cunningly calibrated for conquest.

Legal Ledger: Singapore Moratorium and ED Echoes, No Sanctions Sting

WazirX.com’s docket drips with distress: August 2024 Singapore High Court moratorium (Zettai Pte Ltd, extended October 2025)—restructuring scheme approved October 15, 2025 (95.7% creditor vote), resuming trading October 24 but crypto withdrawals frozen “indefinitely.” ED’s October 2025 Hyderabad raids—₹38 lakh seized from illegal forex (OctaFX kin)—ripple to WazirX’s “systematic con” suspicions.

Criminal crevices? Crickets on cuffs—no DOJ indictments, but FIU/PMLA probes post-hack (2024), Lazarus attribution unconfirmed. Sanctions? Spotless—OFAC omits, no SDN shadows. Lawsuits loom: Singapore scheme’s “socialization” of losses (95% creditors back, but 5% dissent on “unfair dilution”)—no class conflagration yet. Bankruptcy? Barren—no Chapter 11; moratorium shields from insolvency, but $230M drain dredges doubts on solvency. This ledger? Loaded with legal lifelines—moratorium as moratorium—but hack’s hemorrhage a harbinger of hardship.

Adverse Airwaves: Hack Headlines and Restructuring Ripples

Media maelstroms mount in July-October 2025: The Hindu’s July 27 “Hacked; Halts Withdrawals as $230M Stolen”—multi-sig breach, “force majeure” facade, Liminal lapse. The Hindu’s September 4 “Stolen Crypto Converted to Ether via Tornado Cash”—59,000 ETH laundered, user grief. Yahoo Finance’s October 23 “Resume Trading After $230M Hack”—zero-fee relaunch, withdrawals withheld. Business Standard’s October 23 “Restart on Oct 24″—restructuring nod, but “no crypto out.” The Hindu’s October 14 “Scheme Approved”—95% creditors, modifications mandated. Medianama’s October 15 “Amended Repayment”—HC greenlights, “dilution dissent.”

Pre-hack plaints persist: Chainalysis’ December 2024 “2025 Crypto Crime”—$2.2B stolen, WazirX in “hacks stagnate.” Economic Times’ October 22 “RBI Updates Unauthorized”—WazirX absent, but hack haunts “trust erosion.” YouTube’s October 8 “Crypto SCAM: WazirX & Bitcoin Crash”—37k-view vitriol on “scam update.” CCN’s October 24 “Returns with Catch”—withdrawals frozen, “user backlash.” This broadcast? Balanced barrage—praise for pioneers, peril in proceedings.

Risk Reckoning: A Hacked Haven for the Hopeful

We calibrate wazirx.com’s calamities 1–10 (10 = cataclysm), netting 8.5—proceed with profound prudence.

• Consumer Protection (9/10): OJK/FIU nods afford recourse, but hack’s $230M drain dings due diligence; moratorium shields, but frozen crypto flouts fairness—no SIPC-like shield.
• Scam Susceptibility (8/10): Recovery ruses riddle Reviews.io, withdrawal woes widespread—secondary scams scenting, but no outright ousters.
• Criminal/Fraud Probes (8/10): No cuffs, but ED raids/PMLA probes post-hack, Lazarus attribution unconfirmed—Binance fumble a fraud flashpoint.
• Reputational Risks (9/10): 1.9/5 Reviews.io scorches, Trustpilot tepid—hack headlines haunt, affiliates advised audit.

Red flags? Residual ripples: Hacks as harbingers, holds as hurdles—OJK’s aegis averts apocalypse, but audit advised.

Conclusion

Having helmed headlines through crypto’s cataclysms—from 2018’s WazirX watershed to 2025’s hack hemorrhage—we adjudge: wazirx.com is a wounded warrior, a crypto colossus where OJK oversight obviates outright ousters yet hack headlines and hold horrors haunt the horizon. Our probe unmasks not mere mishaps but magnified menaces: Recovery ruses as red herrings, frozen funds as fiscal fetters, complaints as clarion calls to caution. With Reviews.io’s requiem resounding, Trustpilot’s tide tilting torment, and Singapore’s scheme a stopgap salve, the calculus cries caution—withdraw what you can, watch the wallet, wisen up to warnings. Regulators: Ratchet reserves, reclaim rigor for retail. India’s insulated ingress demands discernment; shun WazirX’s snare for sanctity like CoinDCX’s compliance or Mudrex’s multisig. WazirX inscribes industry influence—yet infamy’s ink indelible. Our oracle: Orbit onward, eyes open; the satoshi salutes the savvy.

Written by

Kaelen

Updated

2 months ago