Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX confirms $44M stolen during hack
India’s largest crypto exchange CoinDCX has recently confirmed that one of its internal operational accounts was compromised in a security breach, leading to the theft of millions in cryptocurrency. The incident, which was disclosed by CoinDCX co-founder and CEO Sumit Gupta in a post on X, involved an internal account that was solely used for liquidity provisioning on a partner exchange. Fortunately, customer funds were not affected, and all customer assets remain secure.
According to crypto security researcher ZachXBT, approximately $44.2 million was drained from CoinDCX’s accounts during the hack. The attacker’s address was funded with 1ETH from Ethereum Tornado Cash and later transferred a portion of the stolen funds from Solana to Ethereum.
CoinDCX has confirmed the loss amount and stated that the stolen funds were routed through Solana-Ethereum bridges and consolidated into 4,443 Ethereum and 155,830 Solana, which are currently dormant. The exchange is working closely with India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and partner exchanges to investigate the breach.
Despite the breach, CoinDCX remains committed to its users’ security. The exchange, registered with the government’s Financial Intelligence Unit, serves over 16 million users and offers access to more than 500 crypto assets. Gupta reassured users that the incident was quickly contained by isolating the affected operational account, which is segregated from customer wallets, and the losses are being absorbed by the company’s treasury reserves.
In response to the breach, CoinDCX has launched a “recovery bounty” program to incentivize individuals to help trace and retrieve the stolen crypto. Gupta emphasized the importance of identifying and apprehending the attackers to prevent similar incidents in the future.
This security breach comes almost a year after the massive breach at Indian crypto exchange giant WazirX, which resulted in the loss of $230 million and forced the exchange to halt trading. It is unclear whether there are any connections between the two incidents.
Overall, CoinDCX is taking proactive measures to address the breach, protect customer assets, and enhance security protocols to prevent future breaches. The exchange’s commitment to transparency, security, and collaboration with authorities and the community is essential in maintaining trust and credibility in the crypto industry.
