WazirX to Resume Trading Tomorrow After Court-Approved Restructuring

Indian crypto exchange WazirX said it will resume trading operations on October 24, following Singapore High Court approval of a creditor-backed restructuring scheme, marking a quick recovery following a $235 million cyberattack on the exchange in July 2024.

The Singapore court sanctioned the restructuring plan on October 13 after 95.7% of voting creditors representing 94.6% in value approved the scheme in August. The court order was filed with Singapore's Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority on October 15, making the scheme legally effective.

Trading will begin October 24 with zero trading fees across all markets for an initial 30-day period. The exchange is implementing a phased rollout over four days through October 27, enabling approximately 25% of tokens each day until reaching full functionality.

"The sanction represents a key milestone in WazirX's journey since it marks one of the fastest restructurings in the global crypto industry, despite suffering one of the biggest cyberattacks in the history of this space," said Nischal Shetty, founder of WazirX.

The July 2024 hack compromised a significant portion of platform assets, prompting WazirX's Singapore-based operator Zettai Pte Ltd to engage financial advisor Kroll and legal counsel Rajah & Tann Singapore to pursue restructuring under Section 210 of Singapore's Companies Act. A Singapore court granted a four-month moratorium in September 2024 after determining the exchange acted in good faith.

The restructuring addressed uncertainty surrounding platform ownership and the fact that liabilities exceeded assets following the breach. Token distributions to scheme creditors will occur alongside the trading restart.

During the phased reopening, all tokens will trade in USDT markets from October 24-27, with order placement beginning at 10:00 AM IST and matching starting at 5:00 PM IST each day. In INR markets, only the USDT/INR pair will initially go live, with other INR trading pairs to be enabled gradually after full functionality is restored.

WazirX has partnered with BitGo, a regulated institutional custodian, to strengthen security of user funds. The exchange previously stated it is migrating remaining assets from its former custody partner Liminal to new multisig wallets.

In November 2024, Delhi Police arrested a Bengali man in connection with the hack, alleging he participated in a sophisticated scheme involving fake accounts sold via Telegram that enabled unauthorized wallet access. According to a police chargesheet, the breach resulted from external access gained through deceptive practices rather than vulnerabilities in WazirX's systems.

The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre confirmed WazirX's internal systems were uncompromised. The suspect allegedly told investigators that a "buyer of crypto account through Telegram" offered payment for WazirX accounts.

Liminal, WazirX's custody partner at the time of the breach, disputed the exchange's characterization of events, stating in October that approximately $50 million in user assets remained on wallets accessed via Liminal infrastructure despite WazirX's public blame.

As part of the court-approved restructuring, WazirX must disclose wallet addresses via court affidavit, respond to user queries, reveal financial accounts within six weeks, and ensure future resolution voting occurs on an independent platform.

The exchange stated it will evaluate user response to the zero-fee trading period and may extend the offer beyond the initial 30 days based on community feedback.