Crypto-exchange CoinDCX hacked: $44 million gone in a blink — Here’s all you need to know

CoinDCX, one of India’s largest crypto exchanges, confirmed a major security breach after hackers wiped out approximately $44 million from the platform.

The attack happened early Saturday.

However, CoinDCX founders have assured customers that their assets are safe and losses will be covered by treasury reserves.

Does hacking impact CoinDCX customers ?

The Mumbai-based crypto exchange clarified that the attack does not impact wallets used to store customer assets.

The compromised account was used "exclusively" for liquidity provisioning on a partner exchange.

"Today, one of our internal operational accounts - used only for liquidity provisioning on a partner exchange - was compromised due to a sophisticated server breach,” said CoinDCX Co-founder, Sumit Gupta, on X.

He also said that the losses will be covered by the company’s treasury reserves, which are “sufficiently healthy” to cover the amount.

Update on the platform’s operations

Shortly after the announcement, the company said that the Coindcx Web3 trading was temporarily shut as a precaution, but now it’s live again.

The platform has not stopped trading and INR withdrawals on the crypto exchange, though it urged investors not to “panic sell.”

“A gentle reminder: Don’t panic sell your assets. It often leads to poor prices and unnecessary losses. Let the markets settle. Stay calm, stay confident," says Gupta in another X post.

Recovery process underway

The company stated that the internal security and operations teams have been working along with leading cybersecurity partners to investigate the matter, patch any vulnerabilities and trace the movement of funds.

“We are collaborating with the exchange partner to block and recover assets, including coming out with a bug bounty program soon.”

The bug bounty program is a deal offered by companies to individuals, often ethical hackers, to report software vulnerabilities and security breaches in exchange for recognition and monetary rewards

Gupta also assured that though the scale of this incident is not huge, the company will work hard to recover its funds. "We will share all the details of the incident as the team validates all the facts.”

Crypto platforms on high alert

This is not an isolated incident of an attack on a crypto exchange platform, as almost a year ago WazirX, which was once India's biggest crypto exchange, went through a similar ordeal.

WazirX faced a major security breach where hackers stole over $230 million in crypto assets due to compromised private keys linked to self-custodied wallets managed by the exchange.

The incident comes at a time when regulatory scrutiny around crypto security is intensifying in India, with the government expected to release its first crypto policy paper as early as this month.