Mumbai: Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX has officially resumed operations, almost a year after a devastating cyberattack wiped out $230 million from user accounts. Backed by its creditors, a Singapore court has allowed the exchange to reopen for almost 6.6 million users locked out the system since July 2024, following months of legal hurdles the company has had to undergo under CEO Nischal Shetty.
To bring back users, WazirX has launched a ZERO campaign, aimed at addressing the high transaction fees associated with crypto exchanges. By eliminating these fees, WazirX aims bring back investors disillusioned by the hack.
But this isn’t going to be easy.
To adjust for the $230 million lost in the hack, WazirX is deducting almost 15% of the values held on January 17, 2025. This means that for every ₹100 held on July 18, existing customers will get only ₹85 worth of their cryptocurrencies that they were holding before January 17.
WazirX said that it had conducted a vote on this allocation on its app, before the scheme was implemented. Almost 95% of the participants had agreed to these terms. Discouraged by this, many have chosen to withdraw their funds, but users have been facing another challenge.
Across social media, many have complained about the platform not allowing them to delete their accounts, while charging ₹99 from the existing accounts of every holder for WazirX ZERO.
Many have protested the compulsion of using this plan, and have questioned the crypto platforms reluctance for making it an opt in service.
“The default is WazirX Zero and that’s the right plan for most of the users since we’re a trading platform. But we have provided option and informed everyone who does not want Zero plan,” Nischal Shetty replied to an X user who demanded the same.
Despite that, Nischal will have a hard time regaining the trust he lost following the cyber attack, going by the flood of complaints. How the company aims to address the challenges and complaints remains to be seen.
