WazirX Doubles Bounty as Hacker Moves $57M in Stolen Ether to New Wallets!

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Following the massive $230 million hack of WazirX, the hacker has transferred $57 million worth of stolen Ether to new wallets. This development has prompted the exchange to significantly boost its bounty program, aiming to track and recover the misappropriated funds. Here’s the latest on the situation and its implications for the crypto community.

WazirX Hacker Moves $57M in Ether

On July 22, blockchain security firm PeckShield reported that the hacker behind the WazirX breach transferred 16,350 Ether (ETH), valued at over $57 million, to two new cryptocurrency addresses. Most of the funds, over $54 million, were moved to an address beginning with “0x58d.” 

This transfer represents a significant chunk of the $230 million stolen from WazirX, India’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, marking it as the second-largest crypto hack of 2024.

WazirX’s Response: Doubling the Bounty

In response to the hacker’s actions, WazirX has doubled down on its efforts to track and recover the stolen assets by enhancing its bounty programs. According to a WazirX spokesperson, 54 white hat hackers have already joined the recovery initiative for two bounty programs. 

The track and freeze bounty offers up to $10,000 in Tether (USDT) for actionable intelligence that helps track & freeze the stolen funds. The second one is the white hat recovery bounty, aimed at ethical hackers, which now rewards up to 10% of the recovered amount, with the maximum reward increased to $23 million. 

Meanwhile, the timeframe for this bounty program will be three months from the date of this announcement.

Challenges in the Crypto Sector

The WazirX hack occurred during a challenging period for the cryptocurrency industry, which has been hit by several high-profile security breaches. Shortly after the WazirX incident, Rho Markets suffered a hack that resulted in nearly $8 million in losses. Fortunately, the stolen assets were eventually returned, allowing Rho Markets to resume operations.

In addition, users of the popular Telegram-based game Hamster Kombat were targeted by phishing attacks and fake airdrops designed to steal their credentials and cryptocurrency holdings.