Hacker behind $230 million WazirX exploit converts most siphoned assets into ether

Quick Take

  • The WazirX hacker converted most of the stolen crypto into ether, according to Lookonchain.
  • Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic suggested that North Korea-affiliated hackers were behind the attack.

The exploiter of the $230 million worth of crypto from India’s WazirX exchange has transferred most of the assets into ether, blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain said on X Thursday night.

The hacker has exchanged the funds for 43,800 ETH ($149.46 million) and holds around 59,097 ETH, Lookonchain said in the X post. The wallet has about $15 million worth of crypto remaining, in Dent, Chromia, Celer Network and Frontier tokens.

“It is worth noting that WazirX exploiter deposited 7.7M $DENT ($7.3K) to a Binance deposit address that has not been used before,” Lookonchain added.

The Indian crypto exchange suffered the $230 million breach on Thursday, which targeted its multisig wallet on the Ethereum network. Over 200 different crypto assets were stolen, including Shiba Inu, Ethereum, Polygon and PePe memecoin.

WazirX has since paused all withdrawals, acknowledging the security breach while calling the incident a “force majeure event” beyond its control. 

Meanwhile, another blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said in a report that on-chain data suggests that the exploit was conducted by North Korea-linked hackers.


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About Author

Danny Park is an East Asia reporter at The Block writing on topics including Web3 developments and crypto regulations in the region. He was formerly a reporter at Forkast.News, where he actively covered the downfall of Terra-Luna and FTX. Based in Seoul, Danny has previously produced written and video content for media companies in Korea, Hong Kong and China. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism and Business Marketing from the University of Hong Kong.

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