On Thursday, Indian crypto exchange WazirX announced its plan to compensate customers following last month’s multi-million dollar exploit. The exchange said it had decided to restore all customer balances and reverse all transactions made between July 18 and July 21.

WazirX will restore all account balances

On July 18, WazirX suffered a security breach that drained approximately $235 million from one of the trading platform’s multisig wallets. The crypto heist stole millions in ETH, SHIB, PEPE, MATIC, and other tokens, leaving thousands of users empty-handed.

As a result, the platform ceased operations and initiated a plan to recover the stolen funds. The bounty program allocated 10% of the stolen funds, approximately $23 million, to those who helped the WazirX team recover the tokens from the malicious actors.

In the latest development, the Indian exchange has revealed the steps to address user concerns and compensate affected customers following the massive hack. According to the announcement, WazirX will restore balances of all accounts after the suspension of withdrawals on July 18, 2024, 1 PM IST.

Crypto exchange updates customers of the following steps. Source: WazirX India on X 

Additionally, the trading platform will reverse all transactions made between the withdrawal freeze and the trading pause on July 21. WazirX stressed that the “decisive action” was taken after careful consideration of the situation and feedback from affected clients.

All users will have their portfolio balances on the WazirX platform restored to what they were on July 18, 2024, 1 PM IST. This restoration will be implemented over the next few days and affected users will receive an email notifying them of all affected transactions.

The crypto exchange clarified that the recovery would only affect transactions made after July 18, to ensure “all users are treated fairly following the anomaly resulting from the cyberattack.”

As detailed in the announcement, all pending and ongoing transactions will be automatically cancelled during the recovery. Furthermore, TDS associated with the ineffective transactions, as well as fees and referrals resulting from them, will be reversed and rolled back to the affected users.

Crypto community criticizes next move

WazirX customers shared mixed opinions about the move. Some users expressed their satisfaction with the restoration, calling it a “step in the right direction.” Others, meanwhile, criticized the decision to roll back the transactions made after the hack.

Customers ask for full fund return. Source: Zia ul Haque on X

Some users felt that the exchange made a mistake by not pausing all trading on the day of the hack. By only stopping withdrawals, customers continued to use the platform for three days before the trading halt was announced.

As a result, these customers could be affected by the restoration. In addition, some community members claimed that the measure was “not a good steep slope after 3 weeks, just a correction of your mistake.”

WazirX has also been criticized for not having resumed trading yet. Users who were not affected by the hack say the inability to withdraw their funds is “creating unnecessary hassle.”

The announcement noted that operations remain paused while the recovery is processed. For some, the exchange is creating “a pool of unclaimed funds” by not reopening withdrawals for the unaffected funds.

Total crypto market capitalization is at $1.99 trillion in the weekly chart. Source: TOTAL on TradingView

Main image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com