WazirX Hack Sends SHIB, WRX Tumbling as Bitcoin, Tether Trade at Massive Discount

WazirX’s native token WRX is down 15% in dollar terms.

SHIB has lost 6% of its value since the attacker withdrew $100 million worth of tokens from the Indian exchange.

Most coins, including market leaders Bitcoin and Tether, are trading at a significant discount on WazirX.

Cryptocurrencies and the platform’s native token stolen in a malicious attack on India’s WazirX exchange on Thursday morning are suffering significant losses in market value after nearly 50% of the exchange’s reserves were depleted.

Withdrawal transactions on the stock exchange have been temporarily suspended.

WazirX’s WRX token is trading down 15% at just over 14 cents, according to Coingecko data. The price in rupees has fallen more than 25% since the exchange confirmed the attack, which saw the attacker abscond with $230 million in customer funds, including $100 million in shiba inu {{SHIB}}. The attacker also dumped $52 million in ether {{ETH}}, $11 million in MATIC, and $6 million in PEPE.

Since then, SHIB has lost more than 6% in market value in US dollars and traded 16% lower in rupees amid reports that the hacker liquidated the coins. Blockchain data shows that the attacker dumped SHIB, putting downward pressure on its market value.

BREAKING: WazirX exploiter posts update on token sale, claims they are selling “fairly and kindly to the market”

— HCH (@HeartCanHodl) July 18, 2024

While other tokens remained relatively stable in dollar terms, the exchange experienced significant losses in its INR pairs.

Notably, the bitcoin-rupee (BTC/INR) pair fell 11% to 5.1 million rupees ($60,945), trading at a steep discount to prices on rival exchange CoinDCX, where the cryptocurrency changed hands for 5.7 million rupees. The global average dollar price of BTC was trading 1% higher on the day at $61,800. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading at around $64,900, according to CoinDesk Index data.

Cryptocurrencies are traded at a huge discount on WazirX.

Meanwhile, the USDT-INR pair (USDT) fell by 8% on WazirX.

The discounts on BTC, USDT, and other cryptocurrencies on WazirX may reflect panic selling by investors and a rush to fiat/cash following the attack.