WazirX to restart trading and share revenue to pay back victims of $235m hack

WazirX plans to restart trading alongside new features, a recovery token, and a decentralized exchange to make creditors whole.

Speaking at the company’s fourth town hall session on YouTube, WazirX co-founder Nischal Shetty disclosed plans to airdrop “recovery tokens” to creditors, enabling them to recover 48% of their lost funds by trading the tokens within the platform. The tokens would be distributed on a pro-rata basis.

To support recovery efforts, the exchange plans to relaunch trading by February 2025 and allocate a portion of generated fees toward creditor recovery through a buyback of recovery tokens. Further, to maximize revenue generation the exchange will introduce new offerings, crypto staking, over-the-counter desk, and futures trading.

Besides the new offerings, Shetty added that the company is in the initial stages of developing a decentralized exchange that will operate alongside the existing platform, citing growing calls from users for self-custody options. 

The DEX will feature a native governance token allowing users to trade and earn rewards within the decentralized ecosystem while enhancing liquidity and user engagement. A portion of the revenue generated from the platform would be allocated towards recovery efforts. Users will also be able to swap their recovery tokens for the DEX tokens.

Among other efforts, the exchange plans to recover funds by selling tokens held by third parties and is exploring partnerships with “white knight” investors for rescue financing. 

“We will continue to pursue legal actions to reclaim illiquid and stolen assets actively, ensuring they are secured for Creditors’ benefit,” the exchange wrote in a Nov. 6 post.

WazirX’s recovery efforts come in the wake of a $235 million hack in July that compelled it to suspend operations and pursue a restructuring process in Singapore, where its parent firm Zettai is based.

So far, customers have been able to withdraw 55% of their cryptocurrency holdings and 66% of their cash deposits, while the remainder of their fiat and crypto balances remain inaccessible.

Meanwhile, the platform has come under intense scrutiny from regulators, with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit reportedly investigating WazirX. A coalition of victims is also pursuing a class-action lawsuit with the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in India, alongside two additional cases against the exchange currently filed in the Delhi High Court.