n the aftermath of a security breach earlier this month, the Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX will allow partial withdrawals in rupees for users. The decision comes roughly a month after a $230 million hack forced WazirX to suspend all rupee withdrawal services from the platform.
WazirX Starts Rupee Withdrawals Again
Beginning August 26th, WazirX will allow its users to withdraw 66% of their rupee balances but in a two-phase process. In the first phase, users have to wait until August 26th through September 8th to withdraw 50% of the available funds. The next 16% will be available to withdraw between September 9th - September 22nd.
The exchange said the operating entity of WazirX's rupee services, Zanmai Labs was not affected by the cyber attack and has enough reserves to return the majority of user balances. The company, however, has stated that it has to refrain from releasing 34% of the funds, and this again is all due to an active investigation by law enforcement authorities.
Ongoing Impact of the Hack
While WazirX is moving to restore user access to rupee holdings, the exchange has acknowledged it cannot move forward with cryptocurrency withdrawals.
The reason WazirX is unable to quickly proceed with cryptocurrency withdrawals is that as a result of the historic $230 million hack, there was a significant loss of ERC-20 tokens, and the ERC-20 token assets in the WazirX platform are insufficient to cover user liabilities.
The exchange stated that as a result of the cyberattack and as well as the loss of a significant balance of ERC-20 tokens to that theft, there are insufficient token assets to cover the liabilities related to token balances due to users of the platform.
The phased restoration of rupee withdrawals at WazirX signals a start for the process of recovering from the $230 million hack for the exchange and its users.
